I love this book! It’s beautifully presented as the colours are vibrant. Even as an adult reader I enjoyed having a go at pronouncing words from other languages and I would imagine a younger audience would feel the same whether having been introduced to the book in an educational setting or at home. Very nicely done,.

What a lovely idea.
I am 32 years old and even I have learnt some new languages today.
What a great concept and encouraging way to get kids to connect and learn things like please and thank you. The concept of culture is a important to pass on to younger generations.
I loved Mike Blanc illustrations I thought they were fab!!
I can’t wait to teach my nephews when they are old enough.
Thank you NetGalley and Vanita books for the ARC copy in exchange for an honest review.

A nice little piece of an introduction to the kind of multiculturalism that will help everyone. If your child is lucky enough to live in a world where foreign travel is a possibility, then they should know that their first packing list needs to include the most important words – 'hello', 'please', 'thank you' and 'goodbye'. And that is all we get here – just that, in English, Dutch, Swedish, Estonian (!), Russian, Greek, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Swahili, Chinese, Arabic, Filipino, Australian (!), Hawaiian, and Haitian Creole. The visuals with that are dynamic and certainly colourful, although do rely on a sort of stereotypical approach (all lederhosen, kangaroos and blokes with military hats and balalaikas).

Every instance of each of the words we get it as it appears in that place (Cyrillic, or Arabic, or both logograms and the westernised form for Chinese), and the all-important pronunciation guide. We also get it slathered across the artwork, which causes a problem when a Swedish accent mark changes between the image and the text box. While on that subject, I think when I grew up there was only one 'e' in 'merci'. Some of the pronunciation is not spot-on, and open to a little interpretation, but not objectionably so. It's bright, it's well-meaning, it's fund-raising if profits are made, and while you can argue about the countries included or not until the cows come home, I hope it does achieve the success that makes a profit.