Italy (Exploring Countries: Blastoff! Readers Level 5)

Sticking out into the Mediterranean Sea, Italy has some of the nicest weather in Europe. It is famous for its art, architecture, and cuisine. Readers will discover the physical geography of Italy through descriptions of the landscape, waters, and coasts. They will also learn about the cultural geography of Italy, reading about Italian schools, businesses, and communities.

These profiles offer healthy but easily digestible doses of specific information about each country's major geographical features, wildlife, human populations, schools, festivals, and characteristic foods in a colorful, visually appealing format. Oversimplified maps aside, the presentations are much enhanced by plenty of bright color photos in various sizes and placements, pie charts showing where residents live and what kinds of work they do, and closing spreads of basic statistics with images of flags and currency. Ancient and recent history get only a few passing references, and while readers may be confused by an unexplained reference to damaged buildings in Afghanistan, the Taliban is mentioned, as is war in Iraq and Pakistan. Despite these issues and an account of the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the overall tone of the series is upbeat. --School Library Journal