Look What Came from England

Describes many things that originally came from England, including inventions, sports and games, food, vehicles, fashion, animals, and nursery rhymes

Gr 2-4-"Look What Slipped Past the Editors" might be a more appropriate series title for these ill-conceived books. The introductory chapters of each volume offer a crude hand-drawn map of the country, followed by brief two-page chapters that examine some of the country's noteworthy inventions, fashions, sports, holidays, foods, and animals. Each description merits just two or three sentences, and even these are sometimes riddled with errors. England offers a disingenuous chapter on making a sandwich, with the superfluous advisory that readers will need two pieces of bread. Ancient Greece is credited as the birthplace of libraries, even though they flourished in Egypt and Mesopotamia centuries before the Greeks. Austrian-born Levi Strauss, famous for introducing denim jeans to America, is described as an immigrant from Italy. The poorly chosen illustrations seem gratuitous and do not always complement the texts; for example, black-and-white photos of two clothes irons from the 15th and 19th centuries accompany the author's revelation that this appliance originated in Greece 2400 years ago. These books offer very little information for reports, and their marginal appeal for browsers does not redeem them. Even the most basic encyclopedia will do a more thorough job of explaining the cultural phenomena that these books address so sparingly.-William McLoughlin, Brookside School, Worthington, OH

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