Title: A Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals: Over 90 fun and fabulous festivals from around the world!

Written by: Claire Grace

Illustrated by: Christopher Corr

Published by: Frances Lincoln

A Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals compiled by Christopher Corr and Claire Grace is a fantastic compendium of carnivals, festivals, historical commemorations, religious events and other special days, which are celebrated around the world. Each celebrations has a double page spread which has text on one side and a bright, vibrant illustration opposite that often bleeds across both pages. They have been collated into seasons with a brief introduction to each season to explains what that season has in common all over the world, however they mainly describe seasonal differences in the Northern hemisphere.

Each season is not organised in any particular order within the chapter. Spring opens with the Indian International Kite Festival, with the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival Hanami in the middle and concludes with Martin Luther King Jr Day. Summer includes Palio de Siena the Italian horse race, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and finishes with a spread about the different Summer Solstice celebrations across the globe. Autumn starts with the Mid-Autumn Moon festival celebrated in East Asia, Diwali in the middle and climaxes with the Pearly Kings and Queens Harvest Festival in the United Kingdom. Winter features Hanukkah first, The African Festival of Dancing Masks (FESTIMA) in the middle and finally New Year’s Eve Countdown across the world.

Claire Grace’s text provides a brief, concise explanation of the celebrations, which includes some of the history and pageantry involved. Scattered across each spread is an insightful information bubble or snippet that contains extra fun facts about that particular celebration to stretch and entertain readers. At the back of the book is a spread of glossary words that appear in the text.

This colourful non-fiction book would be a great reference book for teachers wanting to think of ideas for a school assembly that could be expanded and for children who are curious about the world and other cultures. The ideal book for children to dip in and out of during reading times.

This book was originally reviewed for Armadillo Magazine