D’Aluisio, Faith. What the World Eats. Berkeley and Toronto: Tricycle Press, 2008. Print.

Annotation: Photographed by Peter Menzel, this is a a fascinating look at families around the world and what they eat. The 25 families allowed the husband-and-wife team into their homes and their kitchens, allowed them to follow them on shopping trips. The resulting interviews and photos provide plenty of “food for thought” about eating, over-consumption, global trends in food production, equity, even animal rights. Interspersed throughout are simple recipes for soup, bread and other regional dishes adapted to the modern American kitchen. Included also are pages of facts such as what one week’s food would cost in each country, with a map and a sidebar of other facts about that country. Interspersed between the chapters on each family are chapters focusing on the variety of kitchens, street food and meals and the encroaching fast-food culture. There are also charts about annual meat consumption and available caloric intake, the world-wide literacy and fertility rates. There are suggestions for further reading, a sources page, and an index.

Rationale: While the reading level is at a high elementary level, and there is a lot of text in this book, the pictures are fascinating and accessible to all readers, as is the over-all concept. Equally interesting are the rooms in which the families are photographed, providing more comparison and contrast with the western lifestyle. All the families are considered middle class and have at least one child of school age. The graphs and charts are simple enough to be grasped by upper elementary students. This is a wonderful book to explore – no need to read every page unless you want to.