2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: World Wide
There aren’t too many letters left of this alphabet challenge! But, before we end, let’s take a trip around the world to discover the cultures, celebrations, traditions, and festivals of people around the globe. These twelve books are sure to show kids that while we might go to school in different ways or eat different food for breakfast, at the heart of the matter we are more similar than most people want to realize.
Teaching kids about world cultures also teaches kids about empathy, respect, and kindness. Creating space for conversation about differences, an opportunity to learn more about the world beyond their community, and a chance to experience that world through the magic of books is so important. So buckle up for the trip of a lifetime without ever leaving home (unless maybe you stop by your local library) and learn about people on the other side of the world, or maybe who live just down the street!
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2025 Blogging A to Z Challenge: World Wide
The Barefoot Book of Children by Tessa Strickland and Kate DePalma, illustrated by David Dean
From enjoying special days to trying on silly hats, children around the world celebrate the same big ideas and everyday moments. This ground-breaking picture book encourages meaningful conversations about diversity and inclusion, and connects kids to others across the globe.
The Book of Cultures: 30 Stories to Discover the World by Evi Triantafyllides
This perfect bedside book features fictional stories of buddies from different countries, followed by a snapshot on each culture, with fun facts and engaging activities. It is guaranteed to take readers on adventures around the world, all from the comfort of their home.
Children Just Like Me: A New Celebration of Children Around the World
Children Just Like Me is a comprehensive view of international cultures, exploring diverse backgrounds from Argentina to New Zealand to China to Israel. With this brand new edition, children will learn about their peers around the world through engaging photographs and understandable text laid out in DK’s distinctive style.
Highlighting 36 different countries, Children Just Like Me profiles 44 children and their daily lives. From rural farms to busy cities to riverboats, this celebration of children around the world shows the many ways children are different and the many ways they are the same, no matter where they live.
Our World in Pictures: Countries, Cultures, People & Places: A Visual Encyclopedia of the World
Did you know that Cuba’s national sport is baseball, one of the most popular sports in the US? And that kids in both Japan and Chile have earthquake drills on their school schedule? Find out about
anything from the spookily vibrant Day of the Dead parade in Mexico and the beautiful springtime cherry blossom displays of Japan, to blueberry-picking in Sweden and India’s space program. Discover the countries of the world – explore their geography, wildlife, traditions, and arts, in this picture-packed children’s book.
Every country’s profile is full of photos, and each nation has a full-color map detailing its main cities, landscape features, and borders, and exactly where in the world they are, in this engaging encyclopedia for children aged 9-12.
Everything & Everywhere: A Fact-Filled Adventure for Curious Globe-Trotters by Marc Martin
From Hong Kong to Reykjavik, Ulaanbaatar to New York City, this beautifully illustrated, fact-filled adventure book will take curious kids on a lush and unexpected journey around the globe to discover what makes each place unique. Sleepy sloths, colorful cows, staggering skylines, and terrible traffic—countless surprises await globetrotting children of all ages. All you and your child need is a good travel guide and a big imagination. Let’s go!
Global Babies
From Guatemala to Bhutan, vibrant color photographs embrace our global diversity and give glimpses into the daily life, traditions, and clothing of babies from around the world.
If the World Were 100 People by Jackie McCann, illustrated by Aaron Cushley
With almost 7.8 billion people sharing the earth, it can be a little hard to picture what the human race looks like all together. But if we could shrink the world down to just 100 people, what could we learn about the human race? What would we look like? Where and how would we all be living? This book answers all these questions and more!
Reliably sourced and deftly illustrated, If the World Were 100 People is the perfect starting point to understanding our world and becoming a global citizen. If we focus on just 100 people, it’s easier to see what we have in common and what makes us unique. Then we can begin to appreciate each other and also ask what things we want to change in our world.
People and Places: A Visual Encyclopedia
From Spaniards to Samoans, and the Miao to the Miskitu, this fully updated edition of DK’s popular Encyclopedia of People will take you on a worldwide tour of continents, peninsulas, and islands to discover what life is like for the billions of people on our planet.
Discover how the Yakut people survive in the Arctic temperatures of Siberia, or why tattoos are so important in Maori culture. Learn about the Mbendeje people’s hunting sign language that lets them silently creep up on unsuspecting prey. People and Places: A Visual Encyclopedia allows you to explore different cultures through illuminating photography and bitesize chunks of information.
Teatime Around the World by Denyse Waissbluth, illustrated by Chelsea O’Byrne
Did you know that po cha, the traditional tea in Tibet, is thick and salty like soup? Or that in Iran, tea is served with a rock? (A rock candy, that is!) Or that afternoon tea was dreamed up in England by a duchess who complained of being hungry between lunch and dinner?
With vivid poetry, vibrant illustrations, and unique facts about different tea cultures, Teatime Around the World tells the delightful story of a beloved beverage.
This Is How We Do It: One Day in the Lives of Seven Kids from Around the World by Matt Lamothe
In Japan, Kei plays Freeze Tag, while in Uganda, Daphine likes to jump rope. While the way they play may differ, the shared rhythm of their daysandmdash;and this one world we all shareandmdash;unites them.
This genuine exchange provides a window into traditions that may be different from our own as well as mirrors reflecting our common experiences. Inspired by his own travels, Matt Lamonthe transports readers across the globe and back with this luminous and thoughtful picture book.
- Perfect for kids learning about new cultures and customs
- Educates children on the importance of similarities and differences
- Gives kids a unique look into the lives of others across the globe
Welcome to Our World by Moira Butterfield, illustrated by Harriet Lynas
Children all over the world are very different, but they also have much in common. In this beautifully illustrated book, young children can learn all about what people in other countries eat, wear and play, and how they speak and celebrate.
From breakfasts to birthdays, cakes to clothes, and hiccups to hellos, there are so many ways to say and do things – but everyone shares a love of family, friends, food and fun. This delightful book teaches us that despite different languages, customs and traditions, it really is a small world, after all.
A Year Full of Celebrations and Festivals by Claire Grace, illustrated by Christopher Corr
Countless different festivals are celebrated all over the world throughout the year. Some are national holidays, celebrated for religious and cultural reasons, or to mark an important date in history, while others are just for fun. Give thanks and tuck into a delicious meal with friends and family at Thanksgiving, get caught up in a messy tomato fight in Spain at La Tomatina, add a splash of color to your day at the Holi festival of colors and celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
2025 is my tenth year participating in the Blogging A to Z Challenge! This year, I chose as my theme: Fact Finders Club: Nonfiction for Curious Kids with a focus on providing book lists focused on all types of nonfiction books for readers from birth to teens. Each letter of the alphabet will focus on different topics and will provide twelve titles on each list. Nonfiction is having a heyday in children’s literature and if you think it’s dry and boring, then I implore you to take a look at these amazing suggestions! Stop by daily to check out the new books and other posts that I’ll be sharing in April.
