Amazing Asia: An Encyclopedia of an Epic Continent - Rashmi Sirdeshpande - ★★★★.¼

AUTHOR: Rashmi Sirdeshpande

GENRE: Children's Nonfiction

PUBLICATION DATE: October 1, 2024

RATING: 4.25 stars.

In a Nutshell: An informative children’s nonfiction book focussing on the largest continent, the countries comprising it, and the richness of this region. Excellent presentation, comprehensive coverage, great illustrations. Much recommended.

Asia, with the second highest number of countries in the world, the largest land mass (one-third of the entire planet’s land), and two-thirds of the world’s population (over 4.7 billion people), cannot be ignored on the global scale. Its glorious past has been somewhat affected thanks to all the colonial invasions and internal wars, but the present Asia has many tigers that roar with the right spirit. It also has a rich heritage in terms of nature as well as culture. The future of the world is fairly dependent on Asian countries (and their good and bad behaviour.)

The book begins with an introduction to the continent, its countries, and a list of fascinating facts for each Asian country. (I was a bit disappointed to see that India’s “fascinating fact” was that we are the most populous country in the world. Not fascinating at all – it’s commonplace knowledge and quite disappointing! I wish the book had mentioned something more offbeat and relatively unknown such as our having the largest postal network in the world or that we are the world’s largest producer of spices or that we have 22 official languages or that chess and snakes and ladders originated in India… So many fascinating trivia to choose from, but stuck again with the largest-population tag! All the other countries got such wonderful snippets. 😢)

This vast continent is then split across the five geographic divisions: East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, North and Central Asia, and West Asia. Of course, just because the continent is segregated this way doesn’t mean that the nations within a group are similar to each other. They might have certain things in common, but on the whole, each country in Asia has a distinct identity of its own, and the book brings this fact out well.

For each of these five regions, we get information about its history (kingdoms and civilizations), people and cultures, landscapes and wildlife, spectacular sights, famous changemakers, and future trends. I like how there is a properly illustrated map for every region so that picturing it on the globe is quite easy. Once all the regions are covered, there is a special section called ‘Global Asia’, which focusses on immigrant Asians across the world, and their contributions to their new homelands. 

The final section mentions ten ways in which Asia has influenced the world. The book ends with a helpful glossary and a detailed alphabetical index of contents.

The scope of this book is itself a huge reason to pick it up. Within a single book, we get information about various countries and subject areas. The depth might be missing, but the width is detailed enough to encourage further research. To keep today’s youngsters hooked, the book also has several mentions of modern Asian content that is making waves globally, such as manga, K-pop, martial arts, yoga, and a lot more.

I learnt plenty of fascinating names and facts, especially about the Asian countries beyond South Asia. There were so many times when I stopped reading to google more about a particular place/custom/music. (Favourite new discovery? Lake Kaindy of Kazakhstan! I’d love to see it some day!)

The book isn’t purely laudatory. There is an intelligent handling of sensitive topics such as the two major ongoing wars (Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine), colonial rule and its repercussions, disputed territories such as Taiwan and Tibet, and even genocides and public protests against despotic governments.

The illustrations are excellent. Though I prefer photographs rather than sketches when it comes to nonfiction, I do understand the difficulty of legally sourcing photographs from so many diverse topics. The illustrations in this book have the tough task of matching up to real people/places/animals, and they handle this excellently. I loved how this beautiful and colourful continent springs to life in the graphics.

Overall, I am highly satisfied with the book. I wasn’t sure if a single book could do justice to this extensive potpourri of cultures that Asia is, but it does a commendable job.

Much recommended. It will serve well as a learning aide for Asian geography/social science/history in classrooms. Trivia-loving kids will also enjoy the splendid range of fun facts herein. The content ought to be a good fit for older middle-graders and teens.

My thanks to Quarto Publishing Group for providing the DRC of “Amazing Asia: An Encyclopedia of an Epic Continent” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.