Putumayo World Culture Collection (Review)

Do you know what a berimbau is? Or which direction the Tower of Pisa leans?

You don’t? No worries. Until my son got the Latin America Coloring Book and the Europe Sticker Collection from the new Putumayo World Culture Collection I didn’t either.

Read on to learn more about the collection and to enter for a chance to win one of two great prizes.

What’s in the World Culture Collection?

The collection features three regions—Africa, Europe and Latin America. For each region there’s a coloring book and a sticker collection with gorgeous illustrations and fun facts about the people, animals, well-known monuments, musical instruments and geography.

What you’ll love about the coloring books

1. They’re big and roomy! With 20 oversized (11.5” X 14”) pages there’s plenty of space for kids to let their creativity go wild. Even better, there’s lots of white space around the drawings so if budding artist wants to color way outside the lines, he can.
2. They’re eco-friendly.All the coloring books and sticker collections are printed with soy ink. The printer is Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. Even better, as part of its “100% approach”, Putumayo provides funds to the non-profit Trees, Water, People to support global reforestation efforts.
3. They’re educational. Besides the cultural information shown in the illustrations, each book has a child-friendly glossary (a bilingual one for the Latin America books) and maps. And the “draw your own” pages encourage kids to use their imagination.



4. They celebrate the arts. And show people making music together and enjoying it! These days few families in the U.S. make music at home so how great to see music depicted as a fun activity.
5. They depict positive gender and racial images. In the Latin America coloring book girls play soccer and boys play the harp. On one cover a brown-skinned girl and a white-skinned boy pedal a tandem bike, with the girl leading the way.
6. They’re beautiful. The clean lines of the coloring book and the whimsical, forkloric style of the stickers are the work of longtime Putumayo illustrator Nicola Heindl.
7. They’re sturdy. As in tough enough to withstand the earnest scribbling and erasing and stomping (hey, it happens) of a six-year-old.

What’s so great about the stickers?

Well, they’re pretty cool too. Each set of 120 reusable stickers comes in a tri-fold hardcover package. Two flaps fold out to reveal a landscape where kids can build sticker stories. On the third flap there’s a full-color map. The glossary has fun factoids about the sticker images. And there’s even a little storage pocket for the sticker sheets.

One more thing you should know about Putumayo…

This is a company that gives back. Over the years Putumayo has contributed over a million dollars to charitable projects around the world. From Amnesty International to the Worldwide Orphans Foundation to Coffee Kids to countless other organizations.

So, think you’d like to up your kids’ culture quotient with Putumayo’s new World Culture Coloring Books and Sticker Collections?

Enter our give-away for a chance to win one of two great prizes:

• one Putumayo coloring book and one sticker collection or;
• one copy of Celtic Christmas, Putumayo’s newest holiday release

Entering is easy-peasy. Just follow the prompts below. You can do one, some or all of the following. Want more chances to win? Then complete more of the options! The giveaway runs from November 15 through November 28, 2011.

FTC Disclosure: Culture Every Day received a free copy of the Latin America coloring book, the Europe sticker collection and the Kids World Party CD from Putumayo. The opinions expressed here are my own.

Tagged as: coloring books for kids, cultural coloring books, family activities, give-away, music