Expanding Our World with Books

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Byline: Brandy Hilboldt Allport, Times-Union staff writer

Paddington Bear's adventures involve sticky marmalade sandwiches and his befuddled ideas about humans. Harry Potter is all about magic and friendship and intellectual curiosity.

Children love these characters for their likable, entertaining personalities, and as they read these stories, children pick up bits of information about other cultures.

Paddington and Potter reveal that a "lift" is an elevator, and in England, the yard is "the garden." Fans of the irrepressible Eloise know from Eloise in Moscow that blizzards are a regular occurrence there and that "da" is Russian for yes and "nyet" means no. …