This quirky picture book sets out to teach children about various countries and to showcase various facts about the interesting countries.
The Angels are a family of 5 little angels living on a farm in Australia. Hankering to explore the world, they research different countries on the internet, before flying off to explore them in person.
The pictures in this book are very vivid and charming. Bright colours jump off the page and grab the reader's attention. The angel children have a vampiric look at odds with their angelic namesakes, and come across as curious little creatures.
The author has combined interesting facts with brightly drawn images of landmarks, and children reading this book will likely be hooked into learning more about the countries mentioned.
However, I would caution any teacher or parent from using this book as a sole social studies text, without additional conversation or supplementary texts. While some countries are presented as diverse and full of current technology and past history, some countries are presented in a very stereotypical and vaguely racist way.
This is an interesting book to look at and to use as a jumping-off point for social studies, but does have some problematic elements. That said, children will be attracted by the brightly-coloured pictures and the snippets of information about each country.
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