Reading: TINY TRAVELER'S INDIA TREASURE QUEST - Steven Wolfe Pereira & Susie Jaramillo (writers), Melyee Tan & Abigail Gross (illustrators)

Starting in New Delhi, this brilliant, colorful, and highly educational board book for young children could equally aid adults as an illustrated primer to one of the most vibrant, diverse countries of the world. Through detailed illustrations featuring a search-and-find element on each page for little ones to discover a hidden treasure, readers young and old - for such a compact volume - are given an amazingly in-depth look at India, from the Bollywood film industry in Mumbai ... to a safari in Ranthambore ... via a Holi festival, a game of cricket, even chutney as just one element of the vast array of dishes and cuisines India has to offer ... readers are even treated to an Indian wedding and the art of henna as the new bride's hands are decorated for the ceremony. But it doesn't stop there; India is huge, after all, so Tiny Traveler readers also get to climb the Himalayas, ride on a shikara (houseboat) on Dal Lake in Kashmir, and visit the Taj Mahal - again, all while collecting a new treasure at each site. The words accompanying the lush and lively illustrations - in verse, no less - convey a tremendous amount of information while keep descriptions super-brief (as, really, the images speak for themselves), yet also perfectly serve as signposts spotlighting the historical and cultural importance of India as a nation. Amazing, especially for a small board book, and though this is my first visit with a volume from the Tiny Traveler's Treasure Quest series, if this is any indication of the justice each volume does to the country it's focused on, corny as it sounds I'd say the entire collection deserves a place of honor in any child's library; certainly for their first-class educational value, but also because they are simply that entertaining to look through, even on repeated readings. (Available 5/26)  5/5 stars

NOTE: I received a free ARC of this title from NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.