School Library Journal

Gr 3-5-Clear, color photo spreads and explanatory paragraphs introduce 10 "wonderful houses" from a variety of cultural backgrounds. A circular tulou in China, a felt yurt in Mongolia, an underground home in Tunisia, and an earthen "castle" in Togo are among the featured domiciles. Each picture has a full-spread color diagram of a structural cutaway with captions that describe architectural details and/or furnishings and indicate the makeup of the family/families in residence. The author's personal comments enliven the terse text, and his three-sentence introduction mentions his enthusiasm for "interesting" domestic design. An additional purchase that may be paired with Peter Spier's People (Doubleday, 1980) for a rich ethnological experience or Piero Ventura's Houses (Houghton, 1993) for a historical comparison with less exotic examples.-Patricia Manning, formerly at Eastchester Public Library, NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.