This revised edition of Indonesia in the “Enchantment of the World” series is visually appealing and covers a wide spectrum of facts. The brilliantly colored photographs support the concept of Indonesia being a tropical jewel nicknamed the Emerald of the Equator, but the chapters on Indonesia’s transformation from a European colony to a modern, if sometimes violent, nation and from an agrarian to a developed economy are clear and concise. Students will naturally be fascinated by the material on wildlife and cultural traditions, but as they read, they should begin to appreciate how Indonesia’s many different islands, influenced by trade with nations from the Middle East, Europe, and Asia, developed vibrant cultures, cuisines, and celebrations. In particular, they might note how Sukarno’s Pancasila or Five Principles of freedom of religion, humanity and justice, nationalism, government, and the use of natural resources to meet the basic needs of the people gathered the widespread islands with their native peoples using different languages and operating on different value systems into a single nation. One internal contradiction in the book is the description of the first president, Sukarno, as the son of a poor schoolteacher and that of the most recent president, Widodo, as the first Indonesian president to come from a poor background. This book can be useful for a classroom country or area study or as a library reference book. Reviewer: Elisabeth Greenberg; Ages 9 to 14.
