If You Were Me… – Away We Go Media (Review)

Carole P. Roman with Away We Go Media sent us four books to review: If You Were Me and Lived in…France, If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway, If You Were Me and Lived in…South Korea, and If You Were Me and Lived in…Mexico. These books are aimed at kids Pre-K through age 8, and are designed to introduce them to other cultures. Kids will see that kids in other countries have a lot in common with themselves.

Each book features two kids, a boy and a girl, who show your kids where their country is located on the map, what their names might be if they lived there, and what you’d call your parents. Plus, they share about the capitals, landmarks, food and other interesting facts about their country. One of the neat features are the foreign words unique to that particular country sprinkled throughout the text, and each book has a pronunciation guide in the back to help your read the words correctly.

Your young kids will receive a quick and fun introduction to each country, plus learn some new vocabulary and facts. Most of all, they will see how similar yet different the kids lives are in each country compared to their own.

How We Used It
We first started by simply reading the books and looking for the countries on the globe. But then, I had both of my kids draw pictures-something unique to each country that they learned from the books. They got to choose what to draw, and then labeled their papers with the name of the country, their own name, and the foreign word related to their drawings.

What We Think
The kids loved the books from the get go, and enjoyed our read alouds with them. They also thought it was neat to look up the location on the globe. We each pointed to a country (or two in my case) and compared all four locations to our own. We also commented on how we took a trip ‘around the world’ through the stories.

The pictures throughout the books are bright and cheerful, and I feel the stories are engaging. Young kids will enjoy these books-at least my youngest two love them. The books are a quick read, so it’s easy to fit into our busy homeschool day. I can see these as a wonderful and inexpensive addition to a unit study on a particular country or to add in if you are learning one of the languages.

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Pricing and Other Information
If You Were Me and Lived in…France, If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway, If You Were Me and Lived in…South Korea, and If You Were Me and Lived in…Mexico are each available for under $9. There isn’t currently a link to If You Were Me and Lived in…Norway, but it should be available soon.

As an aspiring writer, I enjoy hearing how writers got started, and Carole P. Roman definitely has a fun story. Apparently, she began her writing career thanks to a dare by one of her sons. She used an imaginary game she played with her grandson as the inspiration for her first story series featuring Captain No Beard. Love it!

*Pricing and information is accurate to the best of my knowledge at time of posting.