Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 3rd ; Hard Cover, Nonfiction ; Recommended

Kenya

Kenya by Monika Davies is part of a Blastoff Readers series of Countries of the World. This set is geared towards kindergarten through grade 3, with short sentences, bright color photographs, and bolded vocabulary words. Each book is 24 pages and starts with a table of contents a short description of the country.

This book includes not only a table of contents, but also headings, bolded words, glossary, index, and labeled photos – perfect for introducing a country to early elementary through third grade and working with them on identifying non-fiction text features. 

Each section includes several short sentences and a photograph describing the country (p. 4), land and animals (p. 6), and what life is like in Kenya (p. 12).

This book is a good introduction to a foreign country. The photos show different parts of the country and are eye-catching for younger students. I love the facts pages (p. 20-21) as it summarizes the points talked about in the book and adds details.

This series also includes a page referring you to Factsurfer (factsurfer.com) for additional kid friendly web sources. I liked this website and feel like it would be a great place for your beginning researchers to find online sources, or broaden their knowledge base. At the website you type in the title of your book, click the picture of the book cover that pops up, and then are given three age appropriate sites to go to for more information. 

I find these Blastoff Readers a go-to in my library because I know I can count on them for their eye-catching covers and photos, their quality, and their consistency in content and readability. 

If you need books for younger elementary students about countries, I recommend adding this book to your library collection.

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About Katy Beattie

Katy Beattie is the Teacher-Librarian at Garfield Elementary School (Olympia, WA), where she has been teaching for 15 years and been the Librarian for more than half that time. She has an Australian Labradoodle and two young boys (ages 6 and 9). Her favorite books are anything by Kate DiCamillo and Jason Reynolds, Shalimar the Clown by Salman Rushdie, and The Woman Who Walked into Doors by Roddy Doyle. Her favorite things to teach are coding/robotics and Battle of the Books.