Book Review: Kids on Earth Costa Rica

Title: Kids on Earth Costa Rica

Author: Sensei Paul David

Date: 2023

Publisher: Sensei Publishing

ISBN: 978-1-7771913-6-8

Quote: "Costa Rica's rainy season lasts from roughly May to November." 

This book seems to have been written about the same time as the author's Blue Morphos book, reviewed last week. It's a longer, more informative book, with colorful cartoon drawings instead of photos. The Disney-faced characters dragged in as presenters are pretty off-putting but the book is full of information about the current state of things in Costa Rica.

Basically, and other web pages say the same, Costa Rica is a great big tourist attraction. There are lakes that take up more of Earth's surface than this country. The climate is equatorial, at least a little too warm for active people's comfort for most of the year; instead of summer and winter they have a rainy season and a drier season. Humans never lived or thought they were meant to live on much of this land, and have chosen, at least for now, to preserve a lot of it as natural rainforest. In between the beaches are mountains, some of which are volcanoes. The mountains are covered in greenery and full of animal life, including six different kinds of wild felines and fantastic tropical birds. Some of the land produces crops like pineapples and bananas, and some has been built up into towns. 

The main source of the country's wealth is tourism. The language is Spanish but, considering where the richest tourists come from, people learn English at school. Surfing, deep sea diving, and nature walks are serious business for people like our cartoon hosts, Joaquin and Yocsary. It sounds a bit idealistic and unsustainable, but for some people living on a narrow strip of volcanic mountains in between oceans near the equator might be an ideal too. Costa Rica is one of those small countries that don't even have a regular army; they rely on being nice to everyone and hoping everyone will be nice to them. For now, at least, it all exists. For how long? With the volcanoes? Who knows? 

This book won't disappoint students looking for information; it contains lots of fun facts. The pictures, unfortunately, do things like suggesting that a jaguar and a margay are the same size. If you want to teach children to ignore the silly pictures and read the words, this book might be a great choice. Call attenton to the drawing of Costa Rica's six kinds of wild cats, all drawn the same size, and then look up the average size of each species.