Vanishing Cultures: Down Under

Amazing photography, but also good storytelling. It is written in such a way that is engaging for kids, which is hard to achieve for non-fiction books. The entire series is amazing.

This is a very short, nicely illustrated story that gives a glimpse into the aboriginal culture. Nicely done.

The Vanishing Culture series is one of the best teacher resources I have found in a very long time. Beautifully illustrated and crafted stories immediately engage the students as they get to know a family in the vanishing culture. I have used the books to explore fundamental needs and to inspire critical thinking by comparing cultures. Participants also engaged in problem solving as we discussed what we could learn about sustainability from these ancient cultures. They have also been a wonderful resource for both physical and political geography since cultures are represented in varied continents and biomes and inspire contrasts such as the mountains of Nepal to the arid country of outback Australia. There is no better way to bring a culture to life than stories about real people. Each of these books has two - a story of a family beginning with earlier generations and the story of the author's journey into the focus culture.I have been teaching an Australian studies course for some time. Down Under is a wonderful resource to introduce students to a very rich and very ancient culture.

Economic development, technological growth, and environmental degradation have affected the lives of all people on this planet. Yet modernization has changed the way of life more slowly across generations for some people. In this outstanding book series, Jan Reynolds offers readers a fascinating glimpse into several such societies and describes how families meet their subsistence needs, practice their beliefs, interact in their communities, and live in the elements.To effectively communicate some fairly sophisticated lessons to younger children, the clear narratives each focus on a particular family, and the vivid photographs capture a wealth of interesting information about their activities, clothes, food, and surroundings. Seeing a young aborigines boy pulling an enormous carpet snake out of a log and reading about how the Inuit people survived on a diet consisting only of caribou meat and fat are just a few of the unique experiences that reading this book series will entail.The series has seven books. This book, Down Under, visits the Tiwi, aboriginese people who live on Bathurst Island in Australia.

This is a picture book about the Tiwi tribe that lives on a small island off the cost of Australia. This book tells the story of a young girl named Ampenula. We follow the young girl and her mother as they cling to the ways of their ancestors before them, This book tells us about how they find food, how the celebrate and make their own houses.I would recommend this book for young kids that are interested in the world around them. Most of us will never get the chance to travel to Australia but this book gives us a great idea of how the people there live! Great photos!