Saudi Arabia by Hunt Janin and Margaret Besheer (2003)

Cultures of the World series. I had our children's book specialist order various children's books on

countries around the world, as our ESL students sometimes have to write about their own cultures for their classes, and we had very little in simple language. I am having some Saudi students over for a dinner during the holidays, and when I saw that this book had come in, I decided to read it, so I do not make some great mistakes while hosting them.

It is embarrassing to say how little I knew about Saudi Arabia. I knew where it was and that much of it was desert, but there is much more variety in this large country. There is dessert, mountains, the big port city Jeddah on the Red Sea, and then the oil is on the east side and gets distributed to the world through the Persian Gulf. Of course the sacred Islamic cities of Mecca and Median are also there, in the western part.

I got a sense of their history and am now curious about Laurence of Arabia. (Let's see if I actually read the books I checked out by him and about him.) I did not realize that present day Saudi Arabia was only established in 1932. I had heard about the royal family, but it is now all in context, in a framework. Women did not get mentioned much and appeared in very few of the photographs. I have read about them elsewhere and am concerned about their status, but I will respect that this book for children was written to not be controversial and not confront Saudi beliefs. It looks like they have been amazingly successful at keeping Western influence to a minimum. The riches they have received from oil go towards the betterment of their society, building, modernizing, without allowing alcohol, immodesty and other things restricted by their religion to enter their social structure. Since women are not to talk to men not in their family, there is no socializing outside of the family, so no restaurants, movie theaters, art galleries. I would definitely like to hear more about this from the students when I next meet them. I also got a sense of their relationship with the U.S. (Yes it is about the oil, but not just.) Only through understanding will I be able to make a difference in this world.