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Material World

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

Guns, Germs and Steel (not light reading--you can watch a film version instantly on Netflix as well)

Fast Food Nation (there is a kids version called Chew on This) also The Omnivore's Dilemma (there is also a kids version of this)

Posted

Longitude (we used the slightly abridged audiobook), which is a movie now, too.

 

I like The Road from Coorain (Australian geography is prominent) but haven't tried it with a kid yet. Her sequel, True North, also has a lot of interesting cultural comparison (Australia, USA, Canada) but maybe not enough for your purposes.

 

I was thinking about Gandhi but I haven't read the book, only the movie, which helped us understand the area of India/Pakistan better.

 

I like to have my kids read a short Solzhenitsyn like One Day In The Life, but usually it's more for history/politics than geography/culture?

 

The Narrow Road or God's Smuggler (if Christian is okay), with a lot about how it felt to cross into closed countries, especially near the end when political oppression was compared to cultural apathy.

 

And if you haven't read them already, books like Anne of Green Gables and Heidi are fun.

 

Julie

Posted (edited)

Things Fall Apart – Chinua Acheba

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope – William Kamkwamba

Sailing Alone Around the World - Joshua Slocum

Iran Awakening – Shirin Ebadi (Nobel Peace Prize winner, not the best writing but very helpful to understand Iranian perspective)

A Passage to India - E. M. Forster

Kim – Rudyard Kipling

Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya

The Ginger Man – J. P. Dunleavy (Irish, racist, but incredibly funny, great for discussion)

Burmese Days – George Orwell

The Japanese Inn - Oliver Statler ( Japanese history, Statler has a couple of other books that bring daily life to the reader)

The Good Earth – Pearl S. Buck

The Death of Ivan Ilyich – Leo Tolstoy

My Invented Country – Isabelle Allende

 

This works listed represent a wide range of age and maturity on the part of the student.

Edited by swimmermom3

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