Birthdays Around the World explores how children in different countries celebrate their birthdays. Some might celebrate the same as you do, with favorite foods and games. Others might celebrate only when they are a certain age, or they might not know their birthdays at all. I love the "around the world" type of books because they are good for teaching children about how they are similar and different from others, and about how many wonderful cultures exist, which is very important in forming a child who is not only tolerant but appreciative of differences. This book is really good for giving children a glimpse at how other cultures celebrate and might be a good opportunity to try some of the activities and foods discussed in the book.

Note: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. I was not compensated in any other fashion for the review and the opinions reflected below are entirely my own. Special thanks to the publisher and author for providing the copy.

My Thoughts:
Bright and cheerful illustrations make this a book to look at as well as listen to. There is a nice range of peoples and cultures. It's always great to find out about traditions that are different from our own.

Possible Objectionable Material:
This is another one with a higher lexile, so children in the target age range will definitely need some help.

Who Might Like This Book:
Anyone who likes birthdays and learning about other traditions. Another one to add to your pile of bedtime stories.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.
This review is also posted at https://biblioquacious.blogspot.com/2020/07/childrens-nonfiction-keeps-learning.html

Incredibly fascinating book! Not only did my kids learn about how birthdays around the world are celebrate, but my husband and I did as well.

In a world where everyone seems to be more centrally focused on themselves and those closest to them, I think it's very important to teach children that there are a little more people out there who are very different and celebrate very differently than how they may celebrate. This book covers a large range of cultures and not only their traditions for birthdays but other celebrations as well. I also like that it covers varying foods of different cultures too, which would be great to incorporate into maybe a cooking curriculum for your child or even just introduce a new dish as part of a meal. It would give your child a more hands-on approach to learning about different cultures. Probably my most favorite part of this book is the glossary in the back, showing you the correct pronunciations of all of the birthday wishes and food as well. This should be a welcomed part of any parent and teacher's library for their children to open their eyes to the whole world around them.

Birthdays Around the World by Margaret Ruurs is a part of the Around the World Series exploring the customs and lifestyles of children from different countries. With simple text and colorful cut out illustrations by Ashly Barron, the reader gets a glimpse into all the ways there are to celebrate a birthday. Highlighting various traditions including special refreshments, clothing, gifts, and games as well as how to say "Happy Birthday" in the native tongue, there is just enough information to peak a child's interest in geography. Featuring fourteen children from around the globe, each of the continents (except Antarctica) is represented. Nunavut, Canada focuses on a child from the Arctic Circle, while Hawaii is featured from the United States. Peru, Jamaica, Belgium, Latvia, Russia, Vietnam Nam, Cambodia, Japan, India, Ghana, Lesotho, and Australia round out the list with a marked world map indicating the location of each of these nations. While generalizations are a necessary evil (for example, not everybody in the U.S. celebrates birthdays the same way as children in Hawaii), the reader still gets an overview of different cultures which have their own unique conventions for observing special days. The forty pages includes a glossary of foreign words and phrases and an activity page. This series by Kids Can Press is a recommended addition to any collection of books for younger elementary children.

Four stars and a thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Simplistic book that can inspire a wide variety of classroom activities.

I love books like this. They are a great way to get children interested in nonfiction, similar to the plethora of child-focused biographies releasing this year, Birthdays around the World hits the mark in every way. This book is a great way to get children to think on a global level about the world around them. The introduction to different cultural ideas will spark any child's imagination and as a read loud can help with developing critical thinking skills.

Books like this one are a good way to get very young readers a) interested in nonfiction and b) thinking more globally. What better way to introduce different cultural ideas than with the day most kids love the most? While details are quite spares that's not unexpected for what basically amounts to a picture book.

I love children's books like this because it gives me the opportunity to expose my kids to other cultures and traditions. We get books like this often at the library but I have never seen one specifically about birthday celebrations. I have one child in particular that is super interested in geography and other cultures so he and I looked at this book together. His verdict: this book is awesome! We enjoyed learning about some of  the birthday traditions in some other far away lands, and even some closer to home. This is a fun book for any kid to read. It also might be a fun way to incorporate new Birthday traditions!

I think this is such a fantastic idea - so educational. The author shares birthday traditions of 17 different children from around the world, with a map at the beginning showing where the children are from, which is really helpful. Each double-page spread briefly introduces the child and where they are from, how to say Happy Birthday in their native language, and then describes their birthday traditions.

This is a great book for showing children that everyone in the world has different traditions that they live by. It introduces a variety of different countries which some young people may not have heard of. Helpfully, there are two pages at the end of the book for parents and teachers to prompt educational questions based on the text, as well as a glossary with pronunciations of all of the Happy Birthdays in different languages. I learned a lot from this book myself, so this'll be a great one for kids.

I think I've read every book in this series, and I love them all. I really appreciate that they cover such a broad, diverse group of people, and that the countries featured are often smaller and less visible than the typical countries used in worldwide children's books. For example, the U.S. country featured is Hawaii, which has its own rich and unique culture separate from the typical mainland U.S. These books all include people from a variety of religions, ethnicities, skin colors, and disabilities, and I'd love to have any of them available for the students in my classroom.

Birthdays Around the World is a fun look into how kids from 14 different countries celebrate their birthdays. From parties with cakes or piñatas to giving out treats to friends to dancing to not even celebrating your specific day of birth but another time, Birthdays Around the World shows that there are all kinds of ways to celebrate!

I loved Birthdays Around the World as the book was interesting to all the details about each of the country and its traditional ways of celebrating Birthdays, including specific drawings that describes the national customs. I enjoyed random selection of countries and the customs, it covers Latvian, Vietnamese, Lesotho and more, not the customs you hear about every other day or on most trips/ travel guides which are advertised.

The book has cute and lovely drawings, educational for young kids to raise international communication interest and seek to know the World Map and play naming countries games. It provides a parental guidance how to use the book interactive way and how to rise the interest of different customs around the word and maybe even around the neighborhood where you live.

I, as an adult found it interesting! Finally I got to know what meaning is means when Indians place milk, flowers on the temple. There are countries where a special costume is worn during the special day, in some countries, the birthday is not celebrated the traditional way and some has detailed difference in customs than the other nationalities.

A survey of 15 different cultures around the world and how a child there would celebrate their birthday including any special traditions and foods. In the back of the book is a glossary and pronunciation guide to foreign words and phrases that appear, like how each culture wishes someone a happy birthday.

This book includes a broad range of different traditions from personal birthday parties, to cultures where you give gifts instead of receive them, to cultures where a personal birthday isn’t celebrated as much as a certain time when everyone turns older. It’s a pretty good sampling of celebrations across the spectrum of possibilities. I also liked that through this you get introduced to special celebratory foods in each culture. And don’t miss the glossary/pronunciation guide in the back where you can learn how to correctly say those food names and birthday wishes. Definitely will be eye-opening for many kids. Great resource for curious kids or classes studying different cultures. We will definitely be ordering this for our international school.

(Will be posted on GoodReads Aug 22, 2017.)

Margriet Ruurs shares birthday traditions of children from 17 different countries around the world. . Each two-page spread introduces the child and where they are from. It tells how to say Happy Birthday in their native language, and then describes their birthday traditions. These traditions always include food served and whether or not their are gifts given or received. It was interesting to see that there are many countries that do not celebrate the actual day of their birth. In some countries they do not know their actual birthday, and in others everyone celebrates on the same day. The text is not too difficult or detailed, there is just enough to hold the interest of children and give them some basic information. There is also a wonderful map of the world at the beginning of the book showing where the children are from so you can see where these countries are. There are some fun illustrations by Ashley Barron done in a beautiful cut-paper collage artwork that adds interest to the book.

This is a great book for showing children that everyone in the world has different traditions/customs that they live by, and that there is no one particular 'normal'. It introduces a variety of different countries which some young people may not have heard of. This is a great book to use in primary grades when they are learning about celebrations and traditions. As the description says, this book provides cross-curricular applications in language arts, global studies and geography. The back of the book contains a two-page spread with various activities that facilitate a closer reading of the text and a glossary containing translations and pronunciations. This is a great book for public, school and class libraries. There is a lot to learn here as well as peaking the interest of the reader to search out more about the countries and customs mentioned.

5 stars!! I thought that this was a great book to buy as a present for a child on their birthday to give them something a bit more unusual. Its a great way to learn more about different cultures and lots of learning points and tips at the back of the book too for parents and teachers.

I think this is such a fantastic idea - so educational. The author shares birthday traditions of 17 different children from around the world, with a map at the beginning showing where the children are from, which is really helpful. Each double-page spread briefly introduces the child and where they are from, how to say Happy Birthday in their native language, and then describes their birthday traditions. Alongside the text (not too much and not too little), there are some fun illustrations in a style that makes the images look like cut-outs, and great use of white space for placement of the text.

This is a great book for showing children that everyone in the world has different traditions that they live by, and that there is no one particular 'normal'. It introduces a variety of different countries which some young people may not have heard of. Helpfully, there are two pages at the end of the book for parents and teachers to prompt educational questions based on the text, as well as a glossary with pronunciations of all of the Happy Birthdays in different languages. I learned a lot from this book myself, so this'll be a great one for kids!

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

I just adore birthdays. They are so fun, and I can't wait for my birthday (and these days for my boyfriend's birthday) to come. So of course I had to read this book, I already knew a bit about Birthday celebrations throughout the globe, but I was curious to see if there were a few that I didn't know yet.

And yes, I found a few new traditions. It was quite interesting to read that in Jamaica they throw flour over someone's head, or that in Latvia they bump up your chair, one bump for each year!

I also liked that the author started with the name, then the place, and then also added the Birthday wishes (like for Hawaii/Hawaiian: Hau'oli lã hãnau). Plus that they added the names for all the games, food, and other things in the original language. In the back you can find a glossary with what all those words mean (and how to pronounce them).

The only thing I didn't like that much was the fact that some weren't technically birthdays. But rather a national holiday. While in the end I appreciated that it was added, I still wish they had kept to birthday birthdays instead.

The book is also illustrated, and I quite like the style. It looks a bit like, instead of drawing, someone cut out shapes from coloured paper and formed the illustrations that way.
I quite liked this book, and I would recommend it to everyone who loves birthdays, or just wants to know more about them.

The information in the book is based on interviews from children and adults from across the world, and what they have shared with the author is a delightful cultural experience.

It is so easy to assume, even as an adult that we all celebrate birthdays much the same – presents, cake and perhaps a party. This beautiful children’s book enlightens the reader to the many different customs and celebrations that people across the world have for their birthdays, or what those people do who don’t observe birthdays.

So many countries are represented in the book, from Vietnam, Japan, Ghana, and Australia. Some traditions are funny, such as in Jamaica where it is tradition to jump out at a person celebrating their birthday and dump flour over them. Some people don’t celebrate birthdays such as in Lesotho where Nthabeleng doesn’t know when his birthday is but celebrates the birthday of the king on July 17.

The illustrations are beautiful and are a delightful colourful cultural display. The illustrations have been created out of paper cut collage, and have been so precisely cut out that they are beautiful works of art.
I can see children taking great delight in reading this book, as they learn about birthdays and what makes all the celebrations different. Children across the globe will be able to relate to some of these celebrations and will take great delight that the children in the book are just like them. I know I was delighted to see the fairy bread for the Australian section because this is a tradition at birthdays across our country (it made me want to eat fairy bread right away). The book will create a lot of conversation between a child and whoever is reading with them.

From an adult and librarian perspective the notes for parents and teachers at the rear of the book is brilliant. The author has suggested ways to use the book with children rather than just reading it, such as pinpointing different countries on the map, suggesting your child interview a grown up about how they celebrated their birthday and sending a birthday card to a friend. The glossary also explains how to pronounce and interpret the words written in other languages. The author has been very thorough with this book and has created a beautiful homage to birthdays across the world.

Birthdays was an excellent book that I immediately began thinking of ways to use in my classroom. I appreciated the different approaches to birthday celebrations, the map of countries and teacher suggestions at the end. The book displayed a diverse group of families, children and celebrations. The only other thing I would have liked to see included in the book was an adoption story or "gotcha" day tale. I can't wait to add this to my classroom library.