We’ve always enjoyed these books in the past, so we were pleased to get the chance to review more of the Carole P. Roman books and collections by Carole P. Roman!
WHAT IS IT?:
Carole P. Roman offers a number of series of books for children both to entertain and to teach them about history and world cultures. Her full array of 
books is designed for a span of ages from about 2-15, so there’s sure to be something for just about all the children in your family!
The cultural series is a gentle introduction to world cultures by giving your child some idea of what daily life is like in the given country, told through the eyes of another similarly aged child.
The historical series gives a lot more in-depth information and gives your child an idea of what it was like to live in another era of history. You might find yourself reading about the Vikings, the Renaissance, or one of the ancient civilizations.
Then there are a variety of other stories designed to help younger children deal with everyday things like facing your fears, dealing with your problems, or simply using your imagination!
The vast majority of the titles range in price from about $9.99-$12.99.
OUR EXPERIENCE:
My 10-year old son, Holden, will be starting 5th grade at the end of June, and we’ll be studying countries of the Eastern Hemisphere throughout the school year. We’ve really enjoyed the books in the cultural series in the past when we’ve been studying new countries, so we thought this would be a great time to pick out some of the books from that series that cover Eastern Hemisphere Countries. As a result, we chose titles about living in Russia, India and Australia.
If You Were Me and Lived in…Russia: A Child’s Introduction to Culture Around the World was probably our favorite of the three stories we read this time around. We have a good friend from Ukraine, and she could speak Russian to her children. We were always fascinated and wanted to know more about that culture. In this book, we learned that Russia is so big that it spans 9 different time zones! Hold
en was totally shocked at that bit of information! He couldn’t even fathom how that was possible, so we looked at the globe illustration in the book to see for ourselves just how big that country really is. We really enjoyed the beautiful illustrations of some of the buildings in this book, like the drawings of Moscow and Red Square. We learned that children call their parents Mamochka and Papochka (don’t worry…pronunciation guides are included throughout the story), which Holden thought sounded kind of funny! It showed a picture of a shapka ushanka, a furry Russian hat with ear flaps. I told Holden that my father, who had been in the military most of his life, owned one of those hats, and he said it was the warmest thing he ever put on his head! Holden most enjoyed hearing about the unusual foods. I told him I got to try borscht just recently as a guest at someone’s home, and it was surprisingly good! He thought the foods sounded interesting (like blini and syrniki) and said he’d like to try them. So maybe when we begin our studies, we can add in a tasting day to try some of the foods mentioned in this book! We also learned that Russian children like to play ice hockey, which they call xoken, and their own version of our hide-and-seek called fipe. I’ve actually seen Matryoshka dolls, which are little hand-painted wooden dolls that fit inside each other. We also learned that Russians have a New Year’s celebration that sounds an awful lot like our Christmas holiday. But we agreed that their holiday food was not something we’d want to try! 
If You Were Me and Lived In…India: A Child’s Introduction to Cultures Around the World from that same series gave us a great introduction to a country we knew very little about. We learned that its capital, New Delhi, was built over the site of seven ancient cities. And we were amazed to hear that they speak over 100 different languages there! Mom and Dad are called Maaji and
Pataji, and popular children’s names sound far different from anything we’ve heard before. We learned about their currency, their common for of transportation the green and yellow rickshaw taxi), and what they do for entertainment. We imagined how beautiful the white marble Taj Mahal must be and about other popular tourist attractions in India. We were considering having an India-themed birthday party last year (we pick a new country theme each year), so we were really interested to see what kinds of food they eat. We found out that with so many cultures, they have lots of different types of food, but they do love to flavor them up with spices such as cumin, curry, cinnamon, and chilies, and they have naan bread at every meal. Holden loves bread, so that would suit him just fine! We were surprised at first to find out that they like to play cricket, which is the popular sport in England where I was born. But then we remembered that India was a British territory at one time, so that wasn’t such a surprise after all. We laughed when we read that they celebrate the Holi holiday by wearing all white and then throwing colored powders and water at each other! Can you imagine the mess? We figured kids would find that to be a lot of fun.
If You Were Me and Lived in Australia: A Child’s Introduction to Cultures Around the World was unique because Australia is not only a country but also a continent! You may have heard people from Australia say they live in “bush country.” We learned that Canberra, the capital city, is called the “bush capital” because it is surrounded by vegetation. We discovered that typical children’s 
names are just the same as American names that sound familiar to us, and mom and dad are similarly called Mummy and Daddy. Also very similar, their currency is the Australian dollar! There was a colorful illustration of kids diving in the beautiful Great Barrier Reef, which is the largest reef in the world…so large that it can be seen from outer space! That was hard for us to imagine, but I’m sure it’s a spectacular sight to see! In terms of foods, we read that a lunch might include a Vegemite sandwich, which is a vegetable paste on bread. I’ve actually seen that in the international food store but have never tried it myself! And for dinner, they might roast meat on the grill (called a barbie) and serve it with a salad. Sounds a lot like something we would have! We were again surprised to see that Australians like to play cricket, but once again, it was once a British territory, so that makes sense. We found out that Australia Day is a holiday celebrated in late January, but it’s in the middle of summer there since the country is in the southern hemisphere! Holden looked at me strangely when I said that. We also learned that since Australia is so far removed from other countries of the world, its culture has remained largely unchanged over time. That’s neat!
As you can see, there are a lot of interesting facts to learn in this series, but with hand-drawn illustrations, rich colors, and just a few sentences per page printed in a large font, it’s not too much for younger kids to grasp and retain their interest. Each 2-page spread has print on one side on a solid-color background and a full-page cartoon-like illustration on the opposing page. Even my 10-year old found these stories appealing, but they would be great for younger children, as well.
I really like the way these stories are presented. It’s just the right amount of information presented in a very digestible format, and the pronunciation guides keep me (or him) from butchering the words that are foreign to us! There’s also a pronunciation guide and explanation in the back of each book with all the new words in one place taken from throughout the story. These books make a wonderful supplemental resource for your homeschool library!
If you’d like to revisit some of the other Carole P. Roman books and collections we’ve explored in the past, check out these books about Mexico and some of the preschool stories, or learn more about Colonial America, the American West, Renaissance Italy, or Ancient China!
Take a look at what other Crew members had to say about these and other books from Carole P. Roman by clicking on the banner below.
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