Festivals and Celebrations = Fiestivales y celebraciones

There are six books in the “Comparing Countries” series: Daily Life, Festivals and Celebrations, Games and Entertainment, Houses and Homes, School Life and Towns and Villages. “Comparing Countries” is a dual-language English/Spanish series. Although Wikipedia ranks Spanish as the second most spoken language in the world, these books would be much more useful in Canadian school libraries if the books were in English/French. Schools that include a Spanish-speaking community may find this series useful in a dual language section of their library. Due to my lack of Spanish fluency, I cannot confirm the accuracy of the Spanish translation.

Each book begins with an invitation to “go around the world” to compare different aspects of life that students will be able to relate to easily. In Festivals and Celebrations, students will compare birthdays, religious celebrations, carnivals, parades, weddings, festive food, national days, fireworks, ghosts and spirits, and other special occasions.

Each double-page spread includes two columns of colour-coded text comparing two countries. As expected at this age level, some of the information is oversimplified. For example, “Festival traditions” compares the religious festivals of Christmas and Hanukkah. A simple map identifies the location of the two countries.

UNITED STATES
Hanukkah is the Jewish Festival of Lights. Each night, one candle is used to light another candle. The festival lasts for eight nights.

CANADA
People who follow the Christian religion love to decorate their trees and houses for Christmas. Snowmen, reindeer, and wreaths are all traditional decorations.

The books all contain a dual-language table of contents, index, and glossary. Information in these books is stated in manageable and organized sections with examples from a wide range of locations, both rural and urban. The text size is large and reader-friendly, and the information is enhanced by many colourful photos. The page layout is very attractive.

These books are not ‘must-haves’, but they are worth considering for your young researchers learning about communities at home and around the world, especially if you have an immigrant or local Spanish-speaking school community. If you don’t have a need for English/Spanish books, you may want to save your library shelf space for some English/French books, if you can find them.