Originally published on my blog, Nine Pages.

This book has a page for greetings from each of ten languages with a simple illustration for each. Each page includes the proper spelling as well as a phonetic pronunciation in parentheses. That part of the book I enjoyed, but the illustrations propagate cultural stereotypes and that I find rather disheartening. People in Brazil don’t generally go about bare-chested with a necklace of string about their necks. Of this I’m quite sure. Nor do all Irishmen wear green suits with clovers in their green top hats with buckles around the brim.