This is how we do it – A book review

This is How We Do It – One Day in the lives of Seven Kids Around the World by Matt Lamothe (2017)

Recommended for: Kindergarten through Third Grade

This informative and eye-catching picture book follows the daily lives of real kids in seven different countries through the globe: Italy, Japan, Iran, India, Uganda and Russia.

The large format allows the author to present all the different lifestyles in a double page format so kids can compare. The author covers the following:

⁃ This is Me

⁃ This is who I live with

⁃ This is what I wear to school

⁃ This is what I eat for breakfast

⁃ This is how I go to school

⁃ This is my teacher

⁃ This is how we learn

⁃ This is how I spell my name

⁃ This is what I eat for lunch

⁃ This is how I play

⁃ This is how I help

⁃ This is how we eat dinner

⁃ This is what I do in the evening

⁃ This is where I sleep

⁃ This is my night sky

What I like about the book:

This is How We do It helps kids visualize the diversity of our world. It also helps them understand that their way of doing things is not the only way (or the best way!). This picture book helps third culture kids to see not just the way things are done in their passport country and their adopted country but throughout the world.

The endpapers provide a visual map of the world, highlighting each child’s name, country and location a world map. A practical and fun lesson in world geography.

The back of the book also includes photos of all the kids and their families to accent the fact that these are real kids. Also, in the “Meet the Families” section, Lamothe emphasizes that “not everyone in Peru likes to play soccer, and not everyone in Japan eats fish for breakfast,” helping kids understand that not everyone is each country is exactly the same and there is diversity in each culture.

There is a glossary of terms in the back of the book explaining all the underlined words throughout the book. For example, under “This is how we eat dinner”, the family in Peru eat yuca. The word yuca is explained at the back of the book.

The art work is amazing. There is so much detail. The oversized format allows you and your child to pour over the pages and talk about all the differences and details of every day life around the world.

The last two page spread titled “This is my night sky” shows one large blackened page depicting the night sky. I love this! It brings our diversity all back to the fact that we all live on this earth and we all experience very similar things, despite our cultural differences.

I highly recommend this book!

“The similarities and differences between the seven lives are both delicate and astonishing in their details.”. – Booklist, starred review