What Do You Do to Celebrate?; Ashleigh Barton, illustrated by Martina Heiduczek

As one year draws to a close and another is about to begin, people around the world celebrate in their own special ways. Families and friends get together, food is prepared, houses are cleaned and special rituals and traditions are performed and enjoyed.

Menorahs are lit in Jerusalem, special meals are eaten in France and New Zealand, and big parades take place in Cape Town and the Bahamas. Greek families make special cakes, festivals are enjoyed in Edinburgh and San Fernando, and New Yorkers enjoy a midnight run as fireworks light up the sky.

Festivities, fun, food, friends and family take centre stage in this delightful picture book that celebrates cultural diversity and how countries and people around the world celebrate in their own special ways. Christmas, New Year, Lunar New Year, Hanukkah, Epiphany Morning and Boxing Day are all celebrated on this global celebratory tour that visits Israel, the Phillipines, Australia and Venezuela amongst others.

What Do You Do to Celebrate? is filled with happiness, fun and good times. From first page to last, joy, warmth and cheer leap from every page and will have children oohing and aahing and wishing that they could step into the book and experience the festivities for themselves; to gaze at incredible window displays, to join in with the dragon dance, to party at the Minstrel Carnival and to eat a yummy St Basil’s day cake.

The book begins with an opening that invites readers to join in with the fun and then it is time to visit thirteen different locations and celebrate with children and their families in every corner of the world. Each celebration is introduced with four short lines of delightful rhyming prose and double page illustrations are bursting with colourful scenes, happy faces and beautiful city scapes. Whilst none of the places are named until the end, there are little clues as to some of the locations; the Eiffel Tower, Chinese writing, people wearing skullcaps, a ten cent Euro coin. Further information is provided at the back of the book that explains each of the celebrations and where they take place.

I loved learning about how the world celebrates and I know I will be finding out more about some of the celebrations, I’m sure curious children will do likewise. I wonder where you would like to go to celebrate? I quite fancy joining Ana in Caracas, Venezuela and skating to mass and visiting Bahi in Syria to wait for the arrival of the Three Wise Kings’ littlest camel to bring treats on Epiphany morning.

With huge thanks to Harper Collins and ABC Books for this fun read.

Recommended for 4+.