Hello World: A Celebration of Languages and Curiosities

by Jonathan Litton, L'Atelier Cartographik (Illustrator)

Learn to greet people around the globe in this interactive atlas of hellos. With more than 150 languages, flaps to guide you through pronunciations, and features on hieroglyphs, sign languages, and different writing systems, a world of exploration is at your fingertips.

Genres: Nonfiction, Picture Books, Childrens, Cultural, Geography, The World

16 pages, Hardcover

Published September 6, 2016

Reviews

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Talk about diversity. This oversized book features colorful images and more than 150 languages, providing youngsters with many ways to say hello to individuals from around the world. The book is organized according to different parts of the world, moving from two pages dedicated to the world and an overview of how the book is organized, and then, showing the countries in Europe and on to every continent, concluding with Oceania and Australia. The final double-page spread says goodbye to the places readers have traveled. Essential for a classroom that intends to honor diversity and one that might want to expand its students' awareness of the world around them, this is a highly interactive book. Readers lift small flaps that provide information about the language or the saying as well as supporting their efforts to speak the language by offering a pronunciation guide. WOW! Just wow! The book is perfect for browsing, but it is also incredibly informative. If someone at least knows how to say, "Hello!" or can use a familiar local phrase, how much easier is it to get along with others or show one's willingness to learn about a culture and language other than his/her own?

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lift-the-flap book to make little eyes open in wonder and amazement at the richness and diversity of humankind and the languages spoken across the globe. This sturdily produced atlas offers a novel way to explore our planet, with simple pronunciation guides to saying hello in over 150 languages, with facts about population size and delightful illustrations often featuring national costumes. A must-have for multicultural primary classrooms - I can so easily imagine friends showing each other where their families came from and swapping greetings in different languages - and even more essential for schools where there aren't many different languages and cultures represented. A glorious celebration of people, whatever language we speak.

[Paige · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I tell you, the SCREAM my little linguistics soul screamt….! This book stimulates the left hemisphere of my brain DIRECTLY.

[MeganRuth - Alohamora Open a Book · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hello World: A Celebration of Language and Curiosities by Jonathan Litton is a fascinating and fun read for young kids and adult world wannabe travelers like myself. I absolutely adored this book and found it to be a super fun and quick read.

Hello World gets 4.5 out of 5 stars in my book review. I love the concept of the book. I love that the languages are written but also wrote phonetically. I love the tabs/flaps b/c it makes the book more interactive and a fun way to learn the information. Though, the tabs are sometimes a bit cumbersome and difficult to work with.

I love the fun facts found through-out the book. I love that there were hieroglyphics as well as sign-language; as far as I know every language was equally and well represented. I love that I learned so many things, such as in Vatican City they speak Latin. I love the pictures and the maps throughout. I love that the pages are a bit sturdier. I love many things about this book, and that is the reason why Hello World scored high. It's a great book and a fun read.

The tabs are a little difficult to work with. At first it is difficult to get the tabs up, and then the tabs don't easily lie flat when trying to turn the page. I like to think the more use the book gets the easier it will be to turn pages and work the tabs, but as of now it's a tad annoying. Besides the tabs, I did find a few of the extra facts written throughout the book to be worded a little difficult/awkward.

However, these not so fun aspects of the book are minor in compared to the many things I love about the book. Hello World is a fun read, and it would make a great purchase for any elementary school library, and the shelves of a language, travel, maps loving kid.


Hello World: A Celebration of Languages and Curiosities by Jonathan Litton
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Best For: 8 - 12 year olds, 3rd though 6th grade
Worth a Check Out: Yes!
Buy It or Not: If you have a kid who loves languages around the world then yes.
Read Aloud: Not a book to read aloud, but fun to practice some of the different ways to say hello in languages around the world.
Lesson Ideas: World languages, Non-fiction

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful, creative, kid-friendly flap book. Say hello in lots (and LOTS) of languages of the world, with pronunciation and world location on large, double-page spreads. An Atlas and Language book combined! A lift-the-flap book for all ages.

[Sean Harding · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a brilliant book from Jonathan Litton - it is more than a book actually it is a valuable resource that youngsters could spend hours pouring over and looking at.
It goes through different languages and places and gives you very interesting information, it could used as a spring board to look at other information in more detail.
This book may be only sixteen pages but it has more in it than many two hundred page kids books,
It is a true delight, and it again seems to me that Jonathan Litton shines brighter when he is writing non-fiction for kids.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baby Aaron gives this book 2 drooly thumbs up; and I agree, since it's distracted him from his usual favorite activity (i.e. peeling the childproofing foam off the fireplace and eating it).

Delightful book, colorful illustrations. Best of all, the flaps make fun sounds when the baby plays with them.

My only kibitz is why does Europe always go first? Why do Africa and Oceania get stuck at the back of the book? We'll tell the baby about Eurocentrism when he gets just a bit older, I suppose.

[Heydi Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

A monumentally amazing book about languages and populations worldwide. I was taken aback by how wonderfully this book is laid out. While the flaps can be a bit cumbersome to open, the information underneath is well worth the effort. A fabulous find!!

[BLDinMT · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a language nut like me, this was a fun little book.

[Vaiva De Chatte · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very beautiful book about languages

[Amy Lafleur Meyers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creative way to learn how to say hello in other languages. Jonathan Litton goes continent by continent to show readers the languages that are spoken there. Each continent has at least a map spread across two pages. On each page is a flap for each language on which is hello written in the alphabet used by that language. Open the flap and see the pronunciation, the language name, and number of speakers of that language in that country. I was impressed to see that the book even include dialects and regionally spoken languages such as Galician, Catalan, and Basque. The book also does a great job at including Native American and other indigenous and tribal languages. There are even pictures that show hello in non-spoken hand languages. At the very end of the book, Litton also includes goodbye in the whole variety of languages. My only gripe is that the languages aren't labeled well on this extra set of pages. Goodbye in each language appears to be accompanied by a figure who appears to be in traditional dress from that country. Those same figures appear on the maps next to the flaps. However that's not really a particularly user-friendly way to determine which language is which. Nevertheless this book is fascinating and although aimed at children, it's equally entertaining and informative to adult readers!

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely book with a stunning tactile cover. What starts with a simple idea of detailing all the world's hellos becomes a view of the world and it's history.
A deceptively easy book for children to use, it was a joy to hear my children trading hellos. Whether using the phonetic sounds that are listed or the visual guides for physical hellos like the Maori greetings, they had a great time practicing.
The only thing I would criticise is that the tabs are delicate and unworkable for younger children, though suitable if supervised. Also the phonetic words are tiny in some cases and while the children could read them, I struggled with the size at times.
Still for those small faults it is a book I would recommend for inquisitive children and adults! Seeing the close ties of languages across the world, not to mention how European languages have spread in detail was something to behold.

[Monica Edinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review to come.