How Do You Say Hello

By Ashleigh Barton and Martina Heiduczek

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

There are many different ways to greet and say hello to people.  Language uses both speech and the body to communicate and that means there is an endless variety to investigate and enjoy. Ashleigh and Martina have done just that, choosing thirteen cultures to illustrate and explore.

There are greetings with great cultural significance, traditional greetings, informal ways of saying hello, a casual greeting, a friendly greeting, the formal and informal in the same language, the polite and the general greeting. Cultures and countries  featured include Maori, Hawaii, Brazilian Portuguese, Wales, Denmark, Germany, Turkey, Arabic, and more.

The creators have taken pains to be be sensitive and inclusive in their choices, ranging across the world and showing a variety of children . One enjoyable aspect is learning the names of the children from all these exciting places.

The rhyming text is fun to read aloud and the illustrations are a marvel of colour, action and design, transporting you to different worlds at the turn of a page.

This book will be very useful in the classroom, providing material to stimulate discussion and further exploration. Any child with an enquiring mind will enjoy it, particularly if they are from a bilingual family.

ABC Books AU 2023