Hungry Planet: What the World Eats,   ISBN:9781580088695

Customer Rating: 

Menzel, a photographer, and D'Aluisio, who authors the text that accompanies Menzel's photography and happens to be his wife, spent a week each with thirty families in twenty-four countries. At the end of that week, Menzel and D'Aluisio paid for each family to buy an average week's worth of groceries. Each family poses with their food in their home, such as it is, and the book provides a grocery list in addition to a few pages about the family. The families vary greatly in size (both the size of the individual members and the number of family members), location, and wealth, from a family of six refugees in Chad (the total street value of their UN rations for one week: $1.23) to a family of four in Germany (total food expenditures for the week: $500.07) and many other places (including a hunting family in Greenland, which I found particularly interesting, as well as Bhutan, Bosnia, Guatemala, and - of course - the United States). D'Aluisio doesn't pass judgment on any of the families for what they eat, but it's difficult not to notice that, for example, the family from Guatemala eats almost all whole grains, fruit and vegetables, or that fifteen people in Mali eat significantly less than even a family of five in Mexico. My only complaint would be that I think the essays interspersed in the text distract from the book itself, even though I agreed with the topics in the essays. Highly recommended.

Customer Rating: 

What a cool book! I had to have it for an Economic Geography class and it is just the coolest. It shows families around the world with a weeks worth of their food, and they talk about their lives, eating habits, what they used to eat and how that's changed. It also has recipes for each family, a REAL eye opener. All my roomates were jealous...

Customer Rating: 

I bought a paperback copy of this book on vacation after recognizing pictures in it from an e-mail I had received over a year ago and saved because it was so intriguing. I was delighted to find the book and even happier to come home and be able to buy another 3 copies in hardcover at a great price. They arrived quickly. Now I have 3 presents put away for Christmas (including one for the original lady who sent me the e-mail!) and couldn't be happier. Thanks!

Customer Rating: 

The Hungry Planet is most familiar for the photos of some thirty families from very different cultural traditions, each posed with a display of their week's supply of food. The book elaborates on this with many photos of the families at home, at work, at play, in the kitchen, at the market, in the garden. The accompanying reading enhances the experience but is not so extensive as to interrupt the pictures which are the main attraction. It's a wonderful book to share with anyone but especially with youngsters who are old enough to appreciate the variety of human tastes and experiences.

Customer Rating: 

Wonderful book! I saw it at my son's P&T meeting as they were using it at school and I had to buy it for myself. This book equals a visit to a home in each country they depict. Unbelievable!