No awards for this book. I would say this book would be good for 3rd graders and 4th graders because these pictures aren't appealing for little kids in preschool, they are more detailed and less colorful for kids in higher grades. This book is about all the different places in Italy and how each place has its own way of living. Some places are farmlands while other places are cities. It just shows the diversity of the country. Some central issues could be dealing with your environment, understanding foreign places such as italy, and potentially visiting a different country. You could use this book with the 3rd and 4th graders by making them make a dialog of the kids in different environments. for example some kids in the books are farmers and their lives would be very different with the children who live in what it appears to be Rome. They could also draw they things that remind them of Italy before they read the book and then we could go over the actual things that are in Italy.