Addison Braves Brazil

by Laura James

Addison Anderson is a bighearted, bright-eyed, blissful, ten-year-old girl, who chews banana bubble gum, loves riding her bicycle, and beads her own bags and belts.

When the Anderson family boards the plane to Brazil, a borrowed book begins to cause Addison distress. After the plane lands, she bans the bad thoughts from her mind, but when they begin their trek into the jungle, Addison refuses to budge. Will Addison learn to face her fears?

Addison Braves Brazil introduces young readers to a tropical location, another culture, and some challenging situations. While capturing your child’s attention, this story introduces new vocabulary words that begin with the letter B, and each page also includes a definition for those unfamiliar B words. This unique way of telling the story is not only entertaining but makes a great tool for learning.

This book was educational for my 6-year-old son. We would spend time going over all of the “B” words at the bottom of each page. He liked discovering what some of them meant and thought some words were silly. He liked learning about the term “host family” and now wants us to host a family here with us and we go live somewhere else. He liked learning about another culture. It’s funny listening to him speak, thinking that everyone around the world lives the same way we do. One “B” word he learned was Brigadeiros. This was like a dessert candy that looks like a bonbon, covered in chocolate sprinkles. We are now searching for where to buy those. Addison gets to do lots of fun things that kids enjoy like boating, going to the beach, fishing, rolling down a hill, and seeing wild animals that you’d never see in the United States. This was just a great book for introducing culture to a child at a young reader level.