Review: The Kids Book of Canada

The Kids Book Of Canada by Barbara Greenwood

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This picture book provides an overview of the geography and history of Canada and each of the provinces and territories. The book was published before the Northwest Territories were split into 2, but the plan for this was in place, so it is mentioned in the section on the territory.

I liked the format of the book which was appealing to look at and had a consistent format, including a map at the top of each geography page with the area being discussed colored red so you could see where it fit into the country.

The overall impression I got from the book is that Canada is a vast wilderness with lots of animals in it. There was some information, but very little, about Canada's cities or it's non-indigenous people. There were several athletes (esp. hockey players) and some women politicians mentioned. The historical facts on each province were interesting, but didn't really fit together into a coherent picture of the country's history overall. For one thing Upper and Lower Canada kept being mentioned, but it was never really explained what those were or how/if they relate to specific provinces.

Overall I thought this book was good as an overview of the geography of Canada, and was very well illustrated , but was weak as a historical overview.