Publishers Weekly

"Adapted from last year's Hungry Planet, this brilliantly executed work visits 25 families in 21 countries around the world. Each family is photographed surrounded by a week's worth of food and groceries, which Menzel and D'Aluisio use as a way of investigating not only different cultures' diets and standard of living but also the impact of globalization: why doesn't abundance bring better health, instead of increased occurrences of diabetes and similar diseases? These points are made lightly: delivered almost conversationally, the main narrative presents friendly, multigenerational portraits of each family, with meals and food preparation an avenue toward understanding their hopes and struggles. A wealth of supporting information  lush color photographs, family recipes, maps, sidebars, etc.  surrounds the text (superb design accomplishes this job harmoniously) and implies questions about global food supplies. Pictures of subsistence farmers in Ecuador cultivating potatoes from mountainous soil form sharp contrasts with those of supermarkets in a newly Westernized Poland. Fact boxes for each country tabulate revealing statistics, among them the percentage of the population living on less than $2 per day (47% in China, where the average daily caloric intake is nonetheless 2,930 per person); the percentage with diabetes; number of KFC franchises. Engrossing and certain to stimulate. All ages."

School Library Journal

"A fascinating volume for browsing, What the World Eats will be useful for students in classes ranging from world cultures to economics to math to geography to current events."

Booklist

"Stunning color photographs of mealtimes and daily activities illustrate the warm, informative, anecdotal narratives about each family. New to this volume are the many pages of statistics, displayed in eye-catching graphics that compare various countries' rates of obesity, access to safe water, daily caloric intake, and other food-related issues. Like the adult edition, this is a fascinating, sobering, and instructive look at daily life around the world, and it will draw readers of a wide age range to its beautifully composed pages."

Kirkus Reviews

"The plentiful photos are fascinating, offering both intimate glimpses of family life and panoramic views of other lands. Whether used for research or received as a gift from socially conscious adults, this version offers children plenty to chew over . . . "

Booklinks

"Best New Books for the Classroom. Gr 4-8. The authors' Hungry Planet: What the World Eats, published for adults, won the James Beard Foundation Award in 2005 for Book of the Year. In this new youth edition, the creators have reworked the text, added new material, and honed the book's focus to more specifically reflect the experiences of young people. The basic concept, however, remains the same: an illustrated survey of what people across the globe eat in a single week. In preparation for this project, Menzel and D'Aluisio shared meals with 25 families in 21 countries around the globe. Each chapter serves as an intimate photo-essay of a different family and their week's worth of groceries, listed (with prices in both local and U.S. currency) and pictured in a photograph of food and family members that opens each section. Stunning color photographs of mealtimes and daily activities illustrate the warm, informative, anecdotal narratives about each family. New in this volume are the many pages of statistic, displayed in eye-catching graphics that compare various countries' rates of obesity, access to safe water, daily caloric intake, and other food-related issues. Like the adult edition, this is a fascinating, sobering, and instructive look at daily life around the world, and it will draw readers of a wide age range to its beautifully composed pages."

Newsday, Sonja Bolle

"A great way to start teaching children about disparities in the world's resources is with photographer Peter Menzel's books, Material World (Sierra Club Books, 1995) and his new What the World Eats. Menzel practices what might be called comparative visual geography with a conceptually simple but logistically mind-boggling idea: For Material World, he had families from many countries lay every one of their possessions out in front of their houses for a single large-format photo showing the family, the home, and the things they own. In What the World Eats, he's shot 25 families from 21 countries with their groceries for a whole week. The photos are fascinating; one quick look gives a sense of the richness (or poverty) of each society, and sustained perusal offers a wealth of insight. There are charts and graphs of the kind that make fact-oriented kids' hearts beat fast: annual meat consumption, life expectancy, number of McDonald's restaurants per country. There are stories from the photographer's field notes and recipes (okra and mutton stew, anyone?) but also serious discussion of problems like access to clean water. What the World Eats is adapted from Menzel's adult book, Hungry Planet. Normally, adult books about current issues adapted for kids feel stilted, but like Eric Schlosser's Chew on This, a reworking of Fast Food Nation for teens, What the World Eats gives young readers exactly the kind of information that can fire up their sense of social consciousness."