Islamic Culture in the Middle East in Perspective (World Cultures in Perspective)

Gr 5-8-Uneven quality and differing organizational structures make these books a less-than-cohesive series. The strongest is Islamic, which summarizes Islam's history and analyzes its positive and negative effects on Middle East culture, including early scientific discoveries and contemporary repression of women and terrorism. ;African and Asian are general overviews of family structures, religion, food and popular culture. African discusses the Arab Spring, but doesn't mention ongoing upheaval in North Africa. Israeli is the weakest title, featuring an improbably fictionalized group of Israeli teens, each with a family history that represents a subpopulation of Israeli culture. Layouts are crowded, with small margins and large color or historic photos. These books are unlikely to hold reader interest and most of their information is readily available elsewhere, making Islam the title that will be most useful to report writers.α(c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.