This book is at least 20 years old. It was a book for children showing all the different ways people live around the world (what they wear/eat/keep as pets/do for fun). There was little text, and what has stayed with me are the beautiful pen and ink illustrations. I also remember that the last pages showed how boring life would be if everyone was the same: a two-page spread of a street scene with everything all the same in drab colors, and then the next two pages a spread of a vibrant, colorful street scene instead. The book seemed quite large to me as a child, big enough to have lots to look at on each page… perhaps 12″x14″? Most vague of all is my memory of the cover… possibly, it had a drawing of the globe on a white background, and was just called “The World,” though that may be some other book! I’m from the US, but it’s possible this book was brought as a gift from another anglophone country.
Thank you for your help!