Wayland Books Popcorn series is a set of books which aims to introduce younger readers to the countries of the world. The Popcorn series is written in conjunction with a literacy consultant and so contain simple sentence construction which helps to build readers' confidence. This also makes the series ideal for those who have English as their second language.
Poland (2010), a recent title in this series, is written by Ruth Thomson. Themes covered in the book include, Where is Poland? , The Weather, Shopping and Sport. Readers are also provided with a few essential Polish phrases and instructions on how to make a ‘Polish papercut’ (which are said to be traditionally used by Polish women to decorate their homes). I know these little decorations as ‘paper snowflakes’.
The book offers a short fact about Poland on each page which I really enjoyed, so for example, people in the Polish countryside sometimes keep bees in straw beehives, the white of the Polish flag means peace and the red symbolises bravery and strength, and there are more than a 1,000 lakes in Poland.
If you’re interested in buying this book it costs £10.99 in hardback edition (ISBN: 978 0 7502 6304 7)
Alternatively Newcastle Libraries and Information Services carry copies of this book on long term loan.
Also, if you visit the series website: www.waylandbooks.co.uk/popcorn you’ll find lots of downloadable educational resources for children including worksheets which correspond with this book series.
