Synopses & Reviews
Sitting down to a daily family meal has long been a tradition for billions of people. But in every corner of the world this age-old custom is rapidly changing. From increased trade between countries to the expansion of global food corporations like Kraft and Nestlé, current events are having a tremendous impact on our eating habits. Chances are your supermarket is stocking a variety of international foods, and American fast food chains like McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken are popping up all over the planet.
For the first time in history, more people are overfed than underfed. And while some people still have barely enough to eat, others overeat to the point of illness. To find out how mealtime is changing in real homes, authors Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio visited families around the world to observe and photograph what they eat during the course of one week. They joined parents while they shopped at mega grocery stores and outdoor markets, and participated in a feast where a single goat was shared among many families. They watched moms making dinner in kitchens and over cooking fires, and they sat down to eat with twenty-five families in twenty-one countries--if you’re keeping track, that’s about 525 meals!
The foods dished up ranged from hunted seal and spit-roasted guinea pig to U.N.-rationed grains and gallons of Coca-Cola. As Peter and Faith ate and talked with families, they learned firsthand about food consumption around the world and its corresponding causes and effects. The resulting family portraits offer a fascinating glimpse into the cultural similarities and differences served on dinner plates around the globe.
This book has been selected as a Common Core State Standards Text Exemplar (Grades 2-3, Read-Aloud Informational Texts) in Appendix B.
Synopsis
Every day, millions of families around the world gather--at the table or on the floor, in a house or outdoors--to eat together. Ever wondered what a typical meal is like on the other side of the world? Or next door? Cultural geographers Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visited twenty-five families in twenty-one countries to create this fascinating look at what people around the world eat in a week. Meet a family that spends long hours hunting for seal and fish together; a family that raises and eats guinea pigs; a family that drinks six gallons of Coca-Cola a week.
This enthralling glimpse into cultural similarities and differences is at once a striking photographic essay and an essential study in nutrition and the global marketplace. Reviews2009 International Reading Association Teacher's Choice selection International Reading Association's Notable Book for a Global Society, 2009 "Engrossing and certain to stimulate."- Publishers Weekly Starred Review"A fascinating volume for browsing, What the World Eats will be useful for students in classes ranging from world cultures to economics to math to geography to current events." -School Library Journal Starred Review 7/1/2008"Like the adult edition, this is a fascinating, sobering, and instructive look at daily life around the world, and it will draw readers of a wide age range to its beautifully composed pages." -Booklist Starred Review 7/1/2008"Tricycle Offers Food for Thought."-Publishers Weekly
Synopsis
Every day, millions of families around the world gather--at the table or on the floor, in a house or outdoors--to eat together. Ever wondered what a typical meal is like on the other side of the world? Or next door? Cultural geographers Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio visited twenty-five families in twenty-one countries to create this fascinating look at what people around the world eat in a week. Meet a family that spends long hours hunting for seal and fish together; a family that raises and eats guinea pigs; a family that drinks six gallons of Coca-Cola a week.
This enthralling glimpse into cultural similarities and differences is at once a striking photographic essay and an essential study in nutrition and the global marketplace. Reviews2009 International Reading Association Teacher's Choice selection International Reading Association's Notable Book for a Global Society, 2009 Engrossing and certain to stimulate.- Publishers Weekly Starred ReviewA fascinating volume for browsing, What the World Eats will be useful for students in classes ranging from world cultures to economics to math to geography to current events. -School Library Journal Starred Review 7/1/2008Like the adult edition, this is a fascinating, sobering, and instructive look at daily life around the world, and it will draw readers of a wide age range to its beautifully composed pages. -Booklist Starred Review 7/1/2008Tricycle Offers Food for Thought.-Publishers Weekly
Description
In WHAT THE WORLD EATS, 25 families are photographed with the foods they eat in one week, ranging from hunted seal and spit-roasted guinea pig to UN-rationed grain and gallons of Coca-Cola. With a wealth of information about food consumption around the world and its corresponding causes and effects, this enthralling glimpse into cultural similarities and differences is a striking photographic essay and an essential study in nutrition and the global marketplace.
About the Author
Peter Menzel is a photographer known for his coverage of international feature stories on science and the environment. His award-winning photographs have been published in
Life, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Time, Stern, GEO, and the
New York Times Magazine. He has received a number of World Press Photo and Picture of the Year awards.
Faith DAluisio is the editor and lead writer for the Material World book series. She received the James Beard Foundation Award in 1999 for Best Book, Reference and Writing on Food for Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects. She is a former television news producer whose work received awards from the Radio-Television News Directors Association and the Headliners Foundation of Texas.
Peter and Faith are the co-creators of the books Material World: A Global Family Portrait, Women in the Material World, and Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, winner of the James Beard Foundation Award in 2005 for Book of the Year. They are also the co-authors of Man Eating Bugs and Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species. Peter and Faith live in Napa, California.