Explore Africa

by Bobbie Kalman

Africa has more countries than any other continent. In Explore Africa, children learn many facts about Africa's countries and its geography. Each page is beautifully laid out. The book includes several continent maps so readers can relate the text and photographs to their location on the continent. This essential book looks at - Africa's mountains, including Mount Kilimanjaro, and valleys - Africa's waterways, including the longest river in the world - African culture - popular tourist destinations in Africa Teacher's guide available.

Genres: Nonfiction, Geography

32 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Bobbie Kalman is the award-winning author of more than 400 non-fiction books. She established herself as a leading author in children’s non-fiction in the 1980’s and 90’s with two acclaimed series about pioneer life, The Early Settler Life Series (15 titles) and The Historic Communities Series (31 titles), both published by Crabtree Publishing. She has created many of Crabtree’s most popular series, which also include The Native Nations of North America Series (19 titles), The Lands, Peoples, and Cultures Series (93 titles), and The Science of Living Things Series (32 titles), among others.

Born in Hungary in 1947, Bobbie and her family escaped to Austria during the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The family spent several weeks there as refugees before immigrating to North America. A former teacher, Bobbie Kalman taught at both the elementary and secondary levels. She also spent several years working as an educational consultant for several publishing companies. Bobbie holds degrees in English, Psychology, and Education. She is married and has four children and three grandchildren.

Although best known for her non-fiction, Bobbie’s newest book is autobiographical. Released in September, 2006, Refugee Child is the account of Bobbie and her family’s escape from Hungary when she was just nine years old. Written to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution in October of 2006, the book is told from the perspective of a young girl.

Reviews

[McKenna Crimmins · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Explore Africa" would be a perfect book to read to students in third grade when starting a unit on geography. This book had many different facts and was really good at explaining what exactly certain terms meant. It talked about the climate, animals, people, and land of Africa and was very detailed but not too much where it would be complicated for these students to read and understand. The pictures helped explain the text and were really interesting to see. After reading this book to my students, I would give them a project of coloring or drawing their own Africa. Whether it was the shape of the country or something interesting they heard in the book about a certain animal or how the people lived. The main understanding I would want to come out of this book is that there are other places in this world that are very different than our own. We need to learn and be respectful because what we would classify as normal may not be normal to them either. I want these students minds to expand in knowledge and learn.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book that I bought to take to my sponsored children in South America.