French / France
ABC des peuples
(ABC of the people)
Virardi, Liuna
(text/illus.)
Nantes: Éd. MeMo, [2015]. – [60] p.
ISBN 978-2-35289-272-4
Ethnic group | ABC book | Picture book | Non-fiction
Reading age: 5+
White Ravens issue: 2016
Well-balanced and economical in the use of colours, shapes, and words, this alphabet book gathers 26 ethnic groups from all continents. Liuna Virardi combines basic geometrical shapes – all visually listed at the end – in changing patterns to create ethnographic portraits. The pictures are formed by combining a small number of different signs in various ways. Together with the short texts, they capture the geographic and cultural characteristics of each group. This “ABC of the people” tells stories about distinguishing features and commonalities. Differences are highlighted in order to make the diverse characteristics of ethnic groups and cultures more graspable, but also to point to relationships between them. The book includes Blackfoot and Tuareg, Māori, Surma and Lisu – a people who lives in China, India, Myanmar, and Thailand – and others. Many of the people included here, some of which are not widely known, are showcased through the remarkable, deliberately simple portraits. They point out that all belong to that one big family, the family of human beings.