Basher Geography: Countries of the World: An Atlas with Attitude

Basher Geography

by Mary Budzik, Simon Basher (Illustrator)

This brand-new addition to the Basher range of books, which include the bestselling Complete Periodic Table from the Basher Science series, offers a unique and exciting way to explore the world. Basher Countries of the World features a different take on the traditional atlas approach and will capture the imagination of readers with its quirky and highly memorable characters to visualize the world's countries (and other key territories). You'll never forget the huge and fascinating country of Brazil envisaged as a footballer! Accompanying each country character is a detailed map as well as key facts and some amazing information. Who knew that over 820 different languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea, or that Peru has more pyramids than Egypt?

Genres: Nonfiction

203 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 20, 2018

Reviews

[Lagobond · Rating 1 out of 5]

Superficial and full of tired clichés: Germany is the country of Lederhosen and fairytales; Afghanistan is a "monotonous moonscape of somber tan" (excuse me, what?); Barbados is "oozing sugar and molasses since the British arrived in 1627," with zero mention of the horrors of slavery, which made all that "sweet oozing" possible.

The countries are sorted by continent, in the usual US-centric fashion (North America first, then South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania). I would have liked to see an alphabetical sorting, if not for the entire book then at least within each section; but no such luck: even the countries within each continent are sorted west-to-east, requiring the use of the index to find a country for those who don't already know where it is. Which, as this book was written for kids, includes probably pretty much everyone.

Most annoyingly, the countries present themselves by "talking" in the first person.

Barbados again: My British colonial history is evident in the cricket greens and Episcopalian churches that dot my villages.

(Oh how quaint, never mind the plantations, or the slaves who paid for all of it with their lives.)

Uganda: I'm for the birds -- they keep my spirits aloft. And with my stable, warm, wet equatorial climate and lush forests, birds just love me.

Libya: I struck it rich when gas companies drilled down to my oily depths in 1959. But in recent years, civil war has reduced my oil industry to a dribble.

Hurk. This book truly does the world a disservice.

[Andrew Fang · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very nice. Just like the other books

Although I would like you to explain why Taiwan's profile shows the flag and map location show Turkmenistan's
and just a heads up, Myanmar and Indonesia are moving their capitals so please stay alert
and North Korea stopped making nukes

although really good book.