If You Were Me... from Away We Go Media: Review

Our girls have always loved learning about other places. We frequently have missionaries in our church and what my daughters are most curious when they visit is what the country where they are from is like. They want to know about the food, the people, the music, the clothes...just everything! I'm always on the lookout for resources to encourage their curiosity. 

Carole P. Roman and Away We Go Media has created a wonderful set of resources for children to explore other cultures. They are beautifully illustrated and give children an idea of what life is like for other kids all around the world. So far If You Were Me and Lived in... South Korea, If You Were Me and Lived in... Mexico, If You Were Me and Lived in... France, and If You Were Me and Lived in... Norway (link coming soon!) are included in the series. The first three books in this series are available for purchase on Amazon in two formats: Kindle ($.99 each) and Paperback ($8.99 each). If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway is $1.99 (Kindle) or $10.79 (Paperback). They can also be purchased at Barnes and Noble for $9.99 each with the exception of If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway which can be purchased for $8.63. They are geared toward preschoolers through 8-year-old children. My girls thoroughly enjoyed each of the four and enjoyed taking turns reading them!

AAEach book contains information about the language, customs, heritage, and  lifestyle. I loved the inclusion of various tourist sites as well as what children would do at every age. The girls snuggled up on the couch and took turns reaching through each title in one sitting! 

Something I liked about the cover was that the location of each country was shown on a globe. Many other books on other countries I have seen show the country's shape or in the context of its neighbors, but I have never seen it shown on a globe. This world-wide view gives them a wonderful big-picture sense of location.

Beth's favorite was If You Were Me and Lived in South Korea. She really liked learning about the variety of food. She also really liked the picture of the baby, which is why I think she most enjoyed this one! 

Rose and I really liked If You Were Me and Lived in Norway. We have good friends and neighbors who moved their a couple of years ago. It was a lot of fun to think about what our friends might be doing, eating, or seeing! 

I also enjoyed the inclusion of words from other languages. The girls are forever asking me what other words mean in different languages. I'm not very good at knowing those things, but these books gently introduce new languages and give children an opportunity to use context clues to decipher what they mean. 

While I haven't had a chance to do this yet, I also plan on using the books in this series with our children at church during our missions meetings. We meet once a month and I have the opportunity to teach the children more about missions. I love how easily these will fit into the other activities I already have planned!

Take a minute to watch this preview of If You Were Me and Lived in Mexico!

Check out what my Crewmates had to say!