I love stories like this that show how life is for kids around the world. I learned a lot of new stuff as well. The diversity in this story made this great and interesting. It made me want to learn even more about these countries!

This colourful book highlights a wide variety of games played around the world. The book also explores the role of play in different cultures and the importance of play in child development. Each page focuses on a different country or region and describes several children's games played there with a large, cheerful illustration panel showing children playing the games. Although there are games featured from all over the world, there is more focus given to games from European and Western culture-based regions. Some of the regions explored include New Zealand, Israel, Vietnam, and Germany. This is a great reference-style book for children interested in learning about games from around the world.

Thank you to Publisher Spotlight, Albatros Media, and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book.

For me, the highlight of "How Kids Play Around the World" was the colorful and playful artwork that depicted children in different parts of the world engaging in various games and activities. However, while the aim of the book is admirable, the layout of the book was lacking for me.

Present on each double-page spread depiction of children in each geographic area of of the world are numbered boxes that share a little bit of information about different activities that are celebrated in that region of the world. In most cases, the colored number in the text box correlates with an image in the middle of the spread that shows children participating in the described activity. However, sometimes another separate text box with a different number contains related information about the activity in the previous box. The number of this subsequent box does not appear anywhere in the artwork, and it seems as if this information should have been included in one larger textbox along with the previous, related information. There are other instances where the numbered box contains "information" rather than a description of an activity. There is inconsistency of the type and format of the information being shared, and it seems as if there may have been a better way of laying out the content. These text-heavy boxes lead to a feeling of the page being crowded.

Some other more blatant problems have to do with the placement of some of the children on the opening map. The location of the child identified as being born in the USA looks suspiciously like he's actually in Canada, but it's close enough to almost count. However, there is no excuse for the child from Vietnam being placed on the map in a very northern part of China near North Korea that might actually be Russia? Additionally, while the author specifically highlights multiple games and activities from India, Australia, New Zealand and five individual countries in Europe, Africa and South America are each relegated to a single double-paged spread.

Again, I applaud the intention and effort to share games and activities of different cultures nations around the world. However, the execution was ineffectual and inaccurate at times.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me review this story. My opinions are entirely my own.

A wonderfuly fun book. It's fun to see how similar some cames are throughout the world. Also gives me fun ideas to try out.myself

In this book, authors use the way that children play to create connections and help children see themselves as part of a global community. Games are featured from many, many countries around the world so that there is a diversity of experience. The layout of each page works well to bring attention to each game featured, while also creating a cohesive and whimsical picture of play. I can easily see us purchasing for our library and using with students to expand their perspectives.

I received an electronic ARC from Publisher Spotlight through NetGalley.
Readers meet other children from countries around the world. Each page spread offers short paragraphs of text that explain games they play and other information about their country and customs. I appreciate the format for large center picture staying the same for each country so readers make a connection with the illustrations too. The textboxes are numbered and move counterclockwise around the center picture to build on the games shared. Opens the way for more research and growth.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of the book.

This was a fact-filled journey around the world. The book was well illustrated with detailed images that complemented the content well. Reading through the book allows the reader to visit different countries and catch a glimpse of the childhood games from around the world. It was interesting how many of the games have expanded out of their country of origin to be played here in the US.

How Kids Play Around the World takes kids around the globe to learn about games and play philosophies of other cultures. With a similar format to How Kids Learn Around the World (which my family also loved), this book has beautiful illustrations accompanied by about 10 paragraphs of text on each spread explaining each culture's unique play styles.

My kids loved learning about the different games of kids around the world. This book inspired lots of curiosity and led to us searching for videos of games like Poi and Otedama. I recommend this series for families curious about other cultures. The books present the information in a way that reminds us that even though we may have our differences, we are all inherently similar.

Thank you to Albatros Media and NetGalley for gifting my family with an ARC to review. We loved it!