Switzerland is classified as a survey book. It adheres to all of the criteria and description that are presented by Bamford and Kristo. The subtopics are: a political overview, the geography and climate, the wildlife, the history, the culture and peoples, politics, the economy, and the current state of Switzerland. These subtopics are clearly separated by chapter. The subtopics are balanced and are equally discussed.
Rebecca Rowell is well qualified. She has a Master’s degree in Writing and Publishing and she has written several books for children and adolescents. It is mentioned that she had visited Switzerland in the past. I did not observe any opinions; all of the content is completely factual. There were also no occasions of generalizations, sensationalism, or stereotypes. Anthropomorphism and teleology were also not employed. The scope of the book was broad; it included any information about Switzerland. However, Rowell was also able to provide a fairly detailed and in-depth look into the content. There was no specific focus, as almost all aspects of Switzerland were discussed. The writing style was very clear and was at a middle school difficulty level. The book was written in a vivid language that conveys Rowell’s passion for the subject. Occasionally, chapters would end so that the reader could smoothly transition into the next chapter. For example, the fourth chapter ends: “…globalization, which had brought so many immigrants to Switzerland.” Chapter five discusses the “melting pot” culture of Switzerland. The first chapter is written in the second person, with the author portraying the reader as a tourist. The tone after the first chapter was exclusively neutral. The overall structure of the book is organized by enumeration. There are a diverse array of reference aids that are utilized. Each chapter is broken up into sub-sections. For example, in Chapter Six (Culture: United, Not Uniform), the sub-sections are: Music, Sports, Literature, etc. The Table of Contents is straightforward. It is organized strictly like a reference book and is not intended to be read as a recreational work. The index is substantial, but I am disappointed that a photographic index is not included. One of the book’s best qualities is its inclusion of dozens of amazing photographs. There are thirteen terms listed in the glossary. Most of the terms are not completely foreign, but middle school readers would probably benefit from some of these definitions. One the features is that the words in the glossary are not italicized or in bold in the text, which is less distracting for the reader. A pronunciation guide is not included, which I found surprising considering that some of the words are in Swiss German, French, and Italian, although there is a table of common sayings in each language on page 67. There are a timeline, list of facts, and a list of source notes included, which would certainly be useful to the reader. There are sidebars on every other page. They present a sub-story of the main topic. They are all in red ink to draw attention. There are sections in bold print and red ink that serve to serve to summarize two or three paragraphs. The author used a mix of source notes and a traditional bibliography. The further reading, web link, and a list of places to see in Switzerland were well selected and would help students evaluate the source material. There are no notes, introduction, preface, afterword, or appendix, which is typical of research related nonfiction. There are photographs on every other page and most of them take up the entire page. This is one of the best features of the book. The photographs are high quality, and serve to supplement the text well. All of the photos have captions. Illustrations are used the same way that photos are, but they are used for Swiss historical representations. Diagrams and charts or graphs are not used. There is a map for every chapter in the book and it illustrates the main topic. They do have a key and scale. Tables are clearly portrayed and supplement the text with additional, sometimes numerical, information. This book is 144 pages hardcover. The type size is 12-point font. On the cover is a photograph of the city of Interlaken.
As a teacher, I would use this book in a geography class. However, it could also be used in a European Civilization or European Government class. UNO seems to have no books on Switzerland, so I would definitely advise that this book should be added to the collection. I did not find any other reviews on this book. It should be noted that it was published this year. ( )