Explora Asia / Explore Asia (Explora Los Continentes / Explore the Continents)

by Bobbie Kalman, Rebecca Sjonger

This easy-to-read new book introduces children to the diverse continent of Asia--the largest continent on Earth! Full-color photographs and detailed maps highlight Asia's major regions, bodies of water, landforms, forests, steppes, and deserts.

Genres: Geography

32 pages, Library Binding

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Bobbie Kalman is a Hungarian-born children's author and publisher known for educational nonfiction books widely used in schools and libraries. After fleeing Hungary with her family during the 1956 Revolution, she later settled in North America. With backgrounds in English, psychology, and education, she wrote more than 800 books, including “Refugee Child” and several popular curriculum-based series.

Reviews

[Nya Savage]

While this book is geared towards younger children, I felt the content was overly simplified. This book seemed to focus on defining basic global vocabulary such as 'continent' and directional indicators (north, south, etc.). I was disappointed in that I felt as if I didn't learn anything new about Asia. The book was creative in that it divided Asia into regions and compared these regions, but the information was minimal. I was expecting to learn about animals, landmarks, diets, or more about the varying people of Asia. As a continent, Asia is extremely culturally diverse and this book did not satisfy my expectations. This book may be helpful with ELL students in that it thoroughly defines all associated vocabulary, but I'd follow up by finding them a book that actually provides information on Asia. I don't think Asia can be summarized in such a short book. It can certainly be expressed in an easy to read way, but would've served more justice with a greater length of actual knowledge of Asia. I also wished that the book would've left the new vocabulary as bolded words and only defined such words in the glossary at the end of the book. Students should learn how to read informational books, one aspect being the glossary that should be referenced while reading.

[Sherry Scheline]

We are studying Asia today at Camp Library. This was a great read. The kids enjoyed it. The Middle East was very intriguing for the kids.