Fátima Vanessa

Beautiful photography books, family album style, each focusing on a child from a different country and culture. Books to nourish a child's eyes and mind, and open him/her to the world.

Grade 3-5. In this engaging series title, a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador describes a typical day at home and at school and some of the extracurricular activities that she enjoys. Fatima Vanessa also introduces information about her country's natural resources, animal and plant life, and commonly eaten foods. Good-quality, full-color photographs appear throughout and effectively convey the beauty of the land and its people. Fatima Vanessa offers poignant words about the terrible impact of her country's civil war; children's drawings of the conflict are included. An extensive glossary, topically arranged, follows the body of the text. These are words that are used locally or regionally, but that may not be familiar to other Spanish-speaking readers. The authors successfully keep the voice and the spirit of the young narrator in the forefront through the easy, familiar style in which the story is written.?Tania Colmant-Donabedian, Queens Borough Public Library, NY
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.