Children's books with a good sense of place?

I'm borrowing this one from a librarian group, paraphrasing it, because I think it's a fascinating question. My son is 15 and leaving "children's" books, but it's a cool question:

Can you think of good English-language children's books that take place outside of the US, and perhaps outside the Anglosphere generally, and have a strong sense place? Skip historical stories and stories the revolve around war and similar trauma. The idea is to "travel by book"—other travel being unavailable.

The request was a nine year-old girl, but older books would be good.

I recently read a book by Cyprian Ekwensi. It gave me a good feel of Nigeria and Lagos (I think), but probably didn't fit the bill 100%. Some of his other books might?

Listen, Slowly presents small town life in Vietnam. An American 12 year old travels there with her grandmother, meeting extended family for the first time.