Here’s a great new gift for a young child who likes to learn about different parts of the world — without ever having to leave home!
Laura Ljungkvist’s brightly colored Follow the Line Around the World, for ages 3 and up, takes readers from Australia to the Amazon, Sri Lanka to the Sahara. A single black line, which morphs into elephants, camels, burros, cacti, evergreens and other shapes along the way, literally flows from page to page. Each two-page spread profiles a different area of the world, and captions are chock full of facts.
For example, “A taiga [which covers a large part of Russia] is an evergreen forest with very harsh winters and warm, humid summers,” and “Nearly 170 different languages are spoken in New York City,” and “Female donkeys are called jennies.” I liked the factoid on a page about space, where it says straightforwardly, “Pluto used to be considered a planet, but now it’s not.”
A simple message at the end of the picture book reminds us all to be gentle to Mother Earth — so we can continue to enjoy all the flora and fauna found in the various countries around the world.
Other books by Swedish author/illustrator Laura Ljungkvist include Follow the Line and Follow the Line Through the House.
