What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World by Maya Ajmera

• Title: What We Wear: Dressing Up Around the World
• Author: Maya Ajmera
• Publishing: Charlesbridge. February 1st, 2012.
• Synopsis: This book starts out by discussing how all over the world we dress for many situations such as playing, studying and celebrating and how are clothes are an important part of who we are. The book then shows pictures of children from all over the world dressed for a number of purposes such as the activities listed above. (playing, celebrating) The book then concludes by saying how although we all may dress differently, we are united by the fact that they are all unique and beautiful in their own ways. 
• This book takes a different approach to telling the story using pictures more than words. The book is organized by prompting a type of situation common to everyone, and showing mere pictures with captions of how children from around the world dress for them. The actual glossy photographs really help to understand the reality of how this is the way people dress. 
• I found this book to be a wonderful way to discuss different cultures in a way that children can relate to. All children are familiar with the different outfits that they wear for different occasions and hearing about how other people dress would really captivate their attention and get them thinking about different cultures. In this way the book is an excellent means of opening up a conversation about different cultures. 
• In the classroom, I could see my self using this book in a multitude of ways. I could use this book to test comprehension by having the students write down the various countries depicted in the story. I could also incorporate the creative arts by having my students draw from memory their favorite outfit from the story, therefore working on visualizing and comprehension. I could also use this story as geography activity where we identify the various countries discussed in the story.
• I also thought of various more interactive activities we could do as a class. We could have a class fashion show of the various outfits that we wear for various occasions. We could also have a clothes around the world day in which i have groups of two or four pick a country (different from those from the book) out of a hat. They then have to research the different ways people dress in that country and present them to the class on clothes from around the world day. 
• In looking up the author, I found that she has a website. If you wish to learn more about the author, click on the link: http://www.mayaajmera.com