Wonderful Houses Around the World - (Discoveries in Palaeontology) by Yoshio Komatsu (Paperback)

About the Book

Fascinating and unique, Wonderful Houses Around the World gives children a welcome entrée into other places and other lives throughout the world. Glorious two-page photographic spreads capture families outside their homes, be they simple or imposing. Detailed cutaway illustrations reveal the inside of each house, showing the various family members engaged in typical daily activities. Captions explain where each house is located, the environmental conditions that affect the house design, how the family lives in the home, and their possessions -- all providing interesting glimpses of life in other cultures. The ten houses profiled include a red mud dwelling with thatched towers in Togo, a yurt in Mongolia, a steep-roofed, shake-covered house in Transylvania, and a large donut-shaped communal building for 300 in China. This book increases children's wonder about and cultural awareness of the many different people and ways of life around the world.

Book Synopsis

Travel to 10 different countries, and learn about the children, their families, and their unique homes.

As the saying goes, a picture is worth 1,000 words--and that's never been more true than with Wonderful Houses Around the World. The informative book introduces children to a variety of cultures with 10 glorious, two-page photographic spreads of homes and the families who live inside. Each exterior picture is accompanied by an illustration of the home's interior, with various family members engaged in typical daily activities. Descriptive captions explain the everyday lives of the children and families: where each house is located, the environmental conditions that affect the house design, how each family lives in the home, and their possessions-- all providing interesting glimpses of life in other cultures.

There has never been a photographer of buildings like Yoshio Komatsu. He has traveled extensively around the world for more than 25 years, photographing hand-built homes. The 10 houses profiled here include a red-mud dwelling with thatched towers in Togo, a yurt in Mongolia, a donut-shaped communal building in China, and more. Other countries visited in this educational book include Bolivia, India, Indonesia, Romania, Senegal, Spain, and Tunisia.

Book Features

• Spotlight on 10 homes in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South America


• Large, full-color photo of each home


• Detailed interior illustrations by Akira Nishiyama


• Captions and text about the children's daily lives

Fascinating and unique, Wonderful Houses Around the World gives children a welcome introduction to other places and other lives throughout the world.

About the Author

Yoshio Komatsu has traveled all over the world for more than 25 years, shooting pictures of simple homes and the people who live in them. He has published several books in Japanese, including Living on Earth. His first book in English, Built by Hand: Vernacular Buildings Around the World, was published by Gibbs Smith in 2003. Yoshio's photographs appear frequently in magazines and calendars in Japan, as well as in books. His wife, artist Eiko Komatsu, often travels with him, and she created the preliminary drawings for the houses shown in this book. Yoshio and Eiko, when not traveling, live in Tokyo, Japan.

Akira Nishiyama studied at the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo. She has done essays and illustrations for lifestyle magazines and books, including Treasure Box for Wonderful Living and Coordinate Book.