I’ve read several books in this series, and I keep being disappointed.  They have a really good designer who has created a layout that makes for an attractive book to sit on the shelf, or pick up and flip through.  The covers are shiny.  There are lots of attractive color photos.  I just wish they’d paid more attention to the most effective communication of information.  These are dull and basically read like textbooks — a general overview of all the pertinent information on a very shallow level.  They miss so many opportunities to use the photos in a more effective manner:  when they are describing unusual fruits or animals specific to the country, likely to be completely unfamiliar to students from other parts of the world, photos would have been highly appropriate.