China

Examines the land, people, and history of China and discusses its current state of affairs and place in the world.

Reviewed with Richard Ingham's France.

Gr. 4-8. The Nations of the World series is another alternative for libraries in need of a full-length geography series. In terms of text length, the books fall somewhere between Lucent's detailed Modern Nations of the World books and Marshall Cavendish's shorter Cultures of the World volumes. Most pages offer additional information in sidebars, including a "Fact File" at the beginning of each chapter that adds some specifics without weighing down the text. As usual with a Raintree/Steck-Vaughn series, the strong suit is the graphics: numerous graphs, charts, maps, and other drawings illustrate everything from population density (two different charts in the volume on China) to the stops on the Paris Metro. The books aren't as attractively designed as those in the Cultures of the World series or in Children's Press' very striking Enchantment of the World, Second Series, but the color photographs are well-chosen and well-captioned. Back-of-the-book material includes an "almanac," a time line, a glossary, and a bibliography. This makes a fine additional purchase for libraries needing more information about countries, and an acceptable first purchase for libraries that can only afford one set. Susan Dove Lempke
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