A Country Far Away is written by Nigel Gray and illustrated by Phillipe Dupasquier. It was published in 1989 by Orchard Books. It is multi-cultural realistic fiction, but also an informational text because of the depictions of African culture as compared to American culture.
These two men have created two stories with one text. The top half of every pages shows the life of an African child, who lives in a rural country without many resources. The bottom half of every page shows an American child with all the amenities that most average Americans enjoy but also take for granted. The text of the story is basically a journal of a few days time. The cool part is that the journal is being written by both boys at the same time, but is interpreted in two different ways by the pictures. Like both boy’s mothers have a babies. The American mother is shown in the hospital with doctors taking care of her, while the Africa mother is shown in an open air house with a midwife next to her. Both boys say they ride bikes one day, but the African boy rides the one bicycle they have in their village with the other kids running beside him, while the American child participates in a dirt bike race and wins a trophy. This is an excellent book all around. The pictures are colorful and descriptive. The text is simple, but paired with the pictures it has all kinds of meaning. The main pull of this book is the meaning behind it. You can tell the authors want to show how much American’s have that they take for granted and how little people in countries like Africa have. This book is great thing to use in a classroom to decrease ethnocentricity. It opens kid’s minds up to the idea of other people in the world who are like them, but very different from them at the same time. This was an amazing read!
These two men have created two stories with one text. The top half of every pages shows the life of an African child, who lives in a rural country without many resources. The bottom half of every page shows an American child with all the amenities that most average Americans enjoy but also take for granted. The text of the story is basically a journal of a few days time. The cool part is that the journal is being written by both boys at the same time, but is interpreted in two different ways by the pictures. Like both boy’s mothers have a babies. The American mother is shown in the hospital with doctors taking care of her, while the Africa mother is shown in an open air house with a midwife next to her. Both boys say they ride bikes one day, but the African boy rides the one bicycle they have in their village with the other kids running beside him, while the American child participates in a dirt bike race and wins a trophy. This is an excellent book all around. The pictures are colorful and descriptive. The text is simple, but paired with the pictures it has all kinds of meaning. The main pull of this book is the meaning behind it. You can tell the authors want to show how much American’s have that they take for granted and how little people in countries like Africa have. This book is great thing to use in a classroom to decrease ethnocentricity. It opens kid’s minds up to the idea of other people in the world who are like them, but very different from them at the same time. This was an amazing read!
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