This book opens up your children’s eyes to many celebrations held around the world. With the epidemic going on you can use this and never be bored because you can celebrate so many wonderful cultures and it also teaches your children about those people and their stories. So let’s all celebrate.

A great introduction to different holidays around the world. A good addition to school libraries who are looking for a basic overview

Thank you NetGalley and publishers for an ARC. All opinions are my own.

This is a great collection of stories from around the world. There are wonderful pictures to accompany the stories. I would recommend these stories during the holiday season for students or when discussing countries.

An entertaining and informative book about holidays and celebrations around the world, both religious and secular. it starts with New Year's Day, and continues through the year to Christmas. Each two page spread has fun illustrations that depict different aspects of the celebrations, including foods, decorations, and activities, and gives a brief overview of the history and traditions of the celebration. A very interesting read! I always enjoyed learning about other cultures when I was a child, and I think today's children will enjoy it too.

#CelebrationsAroundTheWorld #NetGalley

This charming children's book introduces young readers to several holidays and celebrations - both secular and religious - that take place around the world each and every year. The illustrations are lovely, and I enjoyed learning more about these specials days that are honored by various cultures. While I would have liked to see more dates included throughout the book, "Celebrations Around the World" is an informative and fairly inclusive book to teach children about the joy and beauty of cultural celebrations.

Great illustrations and coverage of diff similar celebrations. However I'd like a bit more cohesive classification. Additionally, the amount of words would be hard for younger kids to sit through. Best served as a flip to the right page kinda book rather than a cover to cover read.

DK always creates lovely fact and information books. This one about world holidays and celebrations is perfect for preschoolers and early elementary looking to expand their knowledge.

What are wonderfully illustrated trip around the world with a large variety of celebrations from different cultures included. The information actually portrays the idea and could possibly encourage a child to want to learn more.

Great resource for the classroom. There are so many holidays and it is hard to find time to go over each one properly. This book has a one pager with fun (diverse!) illustrations internationally and across different religions. This is an easy go to for reading about the holiday in a morning meeting or brief moment during the day. I also like it as a resource to keep in the front of the room that students could pull and look through themselves later. The illustrations are really cute and offer a variety of expressions and humans no matter which country or community it is about, which I really appreciate (and is finally more properly accurate!).

My only note would be that the Thanksgiving page is the typical fluff and would be oversimplified for the conversations I have about Thanksgiving in my classroom. It is definitely a euro-centric happy go lucky description so I would likely skip this page and use other resources or go more in depth and use this to talk about what is missing and provide Native perspectives as the predominant narrative instead etc.

Otherwise, this was pretty good. Always love adding to useful and visually inclusive classroom resources!

Thanks to the publishers and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a beautiful book about international cultures. There were many festivities that I learned about, and elementary school-aged children would really like this book. Included are religious holidays, national holidays, and festivals. I was struck by the most wonderfully colorful illustrations on the cover and throughout this book! This is a good book for classroom, school, and home libraries, to read throughout the year. It would make a great gift.

As an educator of students who are learning English, I strive to bring books into our classroom that feature their cultures accurately. This book is a beautiful representation of many cultures and their unique celebrations. I will use this book throughout the year to highlight different cultures. I highly recommend this beautiful book!

Great illustrations and I like how it covers some lesser know celebrations as well. Breaks it down into clear, simple information for children to digest. Even though it organized by calendar year, I do wish that there were dates or approximate dates included. It would make it easier to plan for teaching.

This is a simple to read, informative book. The colorful illustrations help the information come to life. As I read, I could envision how this could be used during certain culture studies and during certain times of the year. This book would inspire educational projects which will entice the students to read further and develop interest in the material. Great supplemental material and classroom library book for multiple grade levels.

Filled with great facts and thoroughly researched this book weaves together the facts to turn an interesting tale of a wonderful topic into a must read.

“Celebrations Around the World” is really a nice multicultural book that explores many different celebrations both religious and secular in a clear, succinct way. The illustrations are also beautiful. My school has over 33 different languages spoken and this book would be right at home!

This book does an excellent job showing a variety of celebrations from different cultures and countries. There is a great variety of celebrations mentioned, not just the usual ones that children would have already heard of. It was interesting to see how different parts of the world celebrate the same occasion in different ways.

I was especially impressed that Christian holidays were not given any preference and were presented in the same "some people believe" or "Christians celebrate" language. Too often, these holidays are presented as "normal" with the way they are worded, while other culture's or religion's holidays are presented as "different." This makes this book much easier to use in both a classroom setting or a secular homeschooling family.

This is a great reference for introducing new celebrations to kids without an overwhelming amount of information. The short paragraph about each celebration in a given location provides a wonderful jumping-off point for more deep research into these world celebrations.

Celebrations Around the World is a book whose title really says it all. Twenty-five events from across the globe are featured. Katy Halford’s festive and busy (in a good way) illustrations take the spotlight, with text describing the scenes as they unfold on each page. Featuring a variety of cultures, religions, ages, and skin colors, the people on the pages are remarkably diverse, but there’s a “however...” on the horizon.

The Fabulous Celebrations you Won’t Want to Miss are culturally diverse, as are the lively illustrations of the people, decorations, landscapes, and architecture. However, African celebrations are woefully underrepresented. The book references Africa only four times, and although this might seem fair in a book of twenty-five celebrations, it’s not*. It’s just not. See below.

The book really is quite a good one, despite my fervor below regarding insufficient African content. The content regarding the rest of the world’s celebrations is engaging, both in language and in pictures. While certainly not a comprehensive guide, it’s a great jumping-off point. I’d recommend it for students writing reports or interested persons in search of an overview of the main celebrations of the world, sans Africa. It’s a lamentable oversight because there’s nothing holding this book back otherwise. The quick list of classroom ideas I get while reading (and like jot down, but can’t always keep up) started almost immediately, which is typically auspicious. Three and a half stars.


Thanks to DK of Penguin Random House and NetGalley for the provided e-ARC and the opportunity to read this book. My review is honest, unbiased, and voluntary. #NetGalley #CelebrationsAroundTheWorld


*The four references to Africa that don’t seem to amount to, well, four, are as follows:
1. Giza Pyramids illustration—No text, just the pyramids appear in an array as 1 of 11 pictured world landmarks on the first page. (Worth a thousand words? 1000% no.)
2. Samba is an “African-Brazilian dance style”—While true, the main attraction here, the Rio Carnival is a Brazilian festival and the “African” part of the signature samba’s influence is rooted in the West African slave trade and in religious traditions. (The party is in South America, just like the millions of West Africans who were captured and taken to Brazil as slaves between 1781 and 1855. Tragic way to associate with a festival? Yes. Olé? No.)
3. Easter in Ethiopia—On the spread for Easter, 1 of the 13 sentences reveals that Christian Ethiopians celebrate with a chicken stew and call the holiday “Fasika.” (Mind not blown or remotely interested.)
4. International Festival of the Sahara—Thankfully well done as it’s the ONLY African celebration in the book, this one happens annually in Douz, Tunisia and promotes awareness and appreciation for the nomadic way of life and traditions. The four day “Camel Festival” boasts a lovely spread replete with camels racing, acrobats performing stunts on horseback, music, dancing, and even a Sloughi, which is a speedy sighthound which originated in the area.

More on that:
International Festival of the Sahara began as a camel festival as it was called at its 1910 inception, and is now a celebration of North African culture and traditions during which “desert people” teach others about their way of life. The four day event starts out with a parade in Douz, Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara desert; features camel, horse, and dog races; holds poetry competitions and msand hockey matches; boasts stunt-persons and trained horses; and displays music, dance, food, crafts, and costumes. (A Wikipedia search reveals that the “camel festival” began in 1910 while under French rule. that the event is now an important media and touristic event drawing journalists and myriad photographers.) “Desert people...” Hmm.

[Quick thoughts on ideas for the classroom:
•Add the events to the classroom calendar.
•Find the place(s) of the events on a map or globe, if applicable.
•Brainstorm in groups to come up with a list of celebrations not in the book. After adding these to the classroom calendar, use research tools to identify further celebrations that meet a set of criteria (eg minimum number of celebrators, religious or not, transcontinental or not). Award team points, scattergories-style, for each unique answer.
•Determine which of the following are true of each celebration:
___tied to a country or region;
___unite citizens through a shared national pride;
___a recognition of state sovereignty, or commemorations of independence;
___attended by the international community;
___religious observances that are practiced by followers across the globe; or
___rooted in ancient folklore, mythology, or legends.]

What a great idea for a book and how beautifully executed, with gorgeous illustrations and descriptions that make each exotic celebration come alive. Children are exposed to the world and different cultures through such events as the globe’s biggest tomato fight in Spain, the storied Day of the Dead in Mexico, camel races in the Sahara. I wish I’d had this glorious book as a child. It certainly would have sparked a wanderlust that would had led to world travel, travel I long for but have not yet done.

Pub Date 27 Aug 2019.

Thanks to the Katy Halford, DK, and NetGalley for the review copy. Opinions are mine.

#CelebrationsAroundTheWorld #NetGalley

Celebrations around the World by Katy Halford is an illustrated book about different holidays around the world. She teaches us not only about christian holidays but also about other religions and non-religious holidays, such as the International Festival of the Sahara. The illustrations are pretty and colorful to keep the reader’s attention and most of the holidays have four little paragraphs explaining the basics. It’s a fun little starter book to teach your children about other cultures and religions.

There are many ways to welcome new year around the world. Each custom and tradition is different, colorful, and full of meaning to the culture it is located in. This wonderful book celebrates new year with people all around the world. Activities, food, celebrations, dressing are all included in this book. An excellent book to support multicultural classroom discussion and celebrations.