Moja Means One

Moja Means One: Swahili Counting Book is writte by Muriel Feelings and illustrated by Tom Feelings. It is a Caldecott Honor Book and can be included in the multi-cultural informational text genre. It was published in 1971 by Dial Books for Young Readers.
This is a counting book that teaches children to count in Swahili, while also giving kids interesting facts about African culture. The authors note at the beginning explains her desire for children from Africa to know their home language and culture and also for people to start learning a language that is so central to African culture in general. She lived in Africa for two years and learned to speak the language pretty well. While she is not from Africa, she did live their and so she has probably done a good job of relaying the culture accurately. This is a great book for teaching young kids to count even in English. All the numbers are written in English and Swahili and each picture shows the number of things that is written on that page. The pictures in the book are basic black and white sketches with a lot of shading. I loved that this book was so simple and yet tied in such a wonderful and rich culture that not many people know much about. I think the more books written about African culture the more connected our world would be and the more support they would receive to fight disease and hunger. This book also gives kids a look into another culture. Kids are very curious about other countries and this book relates their culture to something as basic as counting that most 2 year olds know how to do. This is just a great, simplistic book to teach kids how to count and also to share the world with them.

A Country Far Away

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!

Hush! : A Thai Lullaby

Hush!: A Thai Lullaby Is written by Minfong Ho and illustrated by Holly Meade. It was published in 1996 by Orchard Books. It is a multi-cultural children’s book. It is written as a lullaby and therefore a poem.
This story is a mother’s plea for all the animals around her home to be quiet so that he baby can sleep. The baby is not interested in sleeping at all with all the commotion around. As I said it is written to rhyme and can almost be sung. Each page also includes the noise each animal makes in the Thai language. This was the most interesting part of this story. The animal noises that they make in Thai are very different from the noises that we use in English. When we were little my Uncle taught my brother that a pig says nui-nui instead of oink-oink, because he was very involved in the Japanese culture that is what pigs say in Japanese. The pictures in this story are really great. They seem to be collages and also drawing pieced together. They are very simply, but very expressive of how the mother is feelings. The cutest part is that you see the little boy slowly peering over the edge of his bed and then climbing out and going to watch all the animals that his mother is trying to quiet. I really enjoyed this story. It was simple enough for very young children to read along and soon memorize. The fact that it is from the Thai culture makes it great for teaching kids about other cultures.

Becoming Naomi Leon

Becoming Naomi Leon is written by Pam Munoz Ryan and published by Scholastic Inc. in 2004. It is realistic fiction and also a multi-cultural novel.
This is the story of a little girl named Naomi Soledad Leon Outlaw. A little girl who lives in a trailer names Baby Beluga with her Great-grandmother, Gram and her little brother Owen. Naomi is a quiet girl who likes to makes lists and worry. She is also very talented at soap carving which she learned from her neighbor Bernardo. Naomi’s story is about her finding her family and finding her voice. One day Naomi’s mother shows up at their door and decides to get to know her children after 7 years of no contact. Gram is hesitant to let her get close because of her wild past and unstable personality. Naomi’s mother, who is now calling herself Skyla quickly sets about buying Naomi all kinds of fancy things and it is soon apparent that she has no interest in Naomi’s little brother Owen. Owen was born with physical deformities and because of these Skyla is not interested in him being associated with her at all. Soon Skyla shows her violent and unstable side and Gram, Owe and Naomi are forced to run away to Mexico in Baby Beluga to escape Skyla’s temper and determination to take Naomi with her to Las Vegas. While in Mexico, Naomi learns how to live a little. She gets to experience the radish carving contest that resembles her talent for soap carving and best of all, she gets to meet her father. She finds love from a man she does not remember and in that love she finds her culture, her background, and her voice. Naomi Leon goes back to California a changed little girl and when she, Owe and Gram have to defend their family against Skyla, she is able to revel in her new found voice and keep the home she has always known. I love the line in the final chapter when Naomi is talking about her father when she says, “Imagine all that love floating in the air, waiting to land on someone’s life!” This story was touching and emotional in all kinds of ways. Owen is a sunny little boy despite his physical deformities and despite the fact that he is picked on at school and even despite the fact that his mother does not want anything to do with him. This little boy stays positive and never sways in believing that better days will come and that their lives are wonderful. Gram is this amazing Great-grandmother caring for 2 kids that are not even blood related to her. She is fierce, kind and sweet. Naomi is a shy little girl who has no idea who she is and by the end of the book knows where she has come from and where she wants to go. Skyla is a maddening woman who embodies all kinds of negative images of mothers that many children have to deal with. She is absent, an alcoholic, sweet and sugary one minute and then violent and mean as a snake the next. Naomi and Owen want her love so desperately and she just has no idea how to love a child. Skyla has mental problems from her alcohol abuse and is rightfully kept from gaining custody of her children in the end. The vast differences between Skyla and Naomi and Owen’s father, Santiago are astounding. Skyla is a delusional alcoholic, while Santiago is a sweet, kind, caring, honest man, who only wants to love his children in any way he can. While Skyla disappeared to find her life, Santiago continued to send money to Gram and named his fishing boat after his estranged children. I really loved this book and everything it stands for. I thought the language really pulled you into the story and I think the level of intensity is perfect for an upper elementary class.
This book would be great to start talking about other cultures, especially the Mexican culture. The Festival of the Radishes is a real event in Mexico and would be really cool for a 4th or 5th grader. Also soap carving is a really cool idea for kids. Obviously plastic knives would need to be used, but an art lesson could easily stem from this book as well as a social studies lesson. Also a lesson on abuse and why it is unacceptable would be great to discuss with this book. There are a lot of lesson opportunities with this novel. Keeping yourself open for your students to talk to is key, but opening up this subject may encourage kids to open up about things going on in their home lives. All in all I thought this was an excellent book.

Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone

Harry Potter by J.K Rowling, illustrated by Mary GrandPre was published by Scholastic Inc. in 1998. It is in the fantasy genre and is about a boy who learns he is a wizard and goes off the wizard school and also on an incredible adventure.
Harry is about as plain as they come. He lives with his Aunt, Uncle and spoiled rotten Cousin, who treat him awfully. One day Harry receives a letter and after a struggle finds out that the letter is from a wizarding school. Harry is actually a wizard! He goes off to school and meets Ron and Hermione and quickly realizes that he is not just going to blend in with everyone else. Everyone in the wizarding world knows Harry’s name and considers him a hero for something he has no idea about. Harry learns that when he was a baby his parents were killed by an evil wizard names Voldemort, but when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, the spell backfired for some reason and Voldemort was supposedly killed.
When Harry arrives at school he is sorted into a dormitory and starts his schooling. He quickly becomes involved in the Quidditch team and sticks to his two friend Ron and Hermione. One day he stumbles upon a hidden room while running from a professor. In the room is a mirror and when Harry steps in front of it, he sees his parents. Harry cannot explain why he can see his parents in a mirror in a random school room, but he spends hours and hours there before the headmaster Dumbledore shows up in this random room and explains to Harry that the mirror shows our heart’s deepest desire. Harry goes on to be very successful at Quidditch and then Hermione, Ron and Harry become entranced trying to figure out who Nicolas Flamel is. They know there is something being hidden in the castle and they know Nicolas Flamel has something to do with it, but they struggle to learn who he is. Finally one day they learn that Flamel is the inventor of the Sorceror’s Stone. As the year finishes out Harry, Ron and Hermione find out more and more about the Sorceror’s Stone and the book ends with a battle between Harry and supposedly Professor Quirrell, a meek, studdering professor, who turns out to be just the host of Voldemort’s weak soul. Harry manages to take the Sorceror’s Stone from the mirror of Erised and keeps Voldemort from coming back to full life.
I, like most of it’s readers, really enjoyed this book. It is so packed full of adventure and friendship and mischief that I don’t know how anyone could not love it. Harry is a classic underdog and he comes out on top! He goes from a miserable life to one full of friendship, love, excitement and belonging. Harry finds friends in Ron and Hermione and never purposefully compromises that friendship. This book showed me a lesson in loyalty. The book talks about the power of love, especially at the very end when Dumbldore is explaining things to Harry. He explains that love like Harry’s mother gave to him when she was trying to protect him from Voldemort leaves a powerful mark on him. When someone loves you, they give you something that cannot be taken away and that makes a lasting impression on you and those around you. I love that the power of love is taken so literally here. That the fact that Harry’s mother loved him so greatly means that Voldemort cannot even touch him because his skin will burn from the love. I know kids already adore this book, but I think reading it with a class and allowing them to talk about it with each other and offering them ideas about plot and character development would be an excellent way to show kids about great literature. This book combines just enough magic with just enough everyday kid stuff to pull in all kinds of children. Kids can relate to Harry and being picked on. The richness of the language pulls you into the story and creates a whole Harry Potter world inside your head. The reader gets caught up in the adventure and just thank goodness there is a sequel. I think the ultimate message of this book has a lot to do with belonging. Harry goes from a house full of people he can’t stand to a school with friends he loves dearly and would do anything for. He finds a home and a family and that is worth more than anything he can imagine.
Obviously this novel would be great for teaching kids about fantasy literature. It can also teach them about friendship and ability. Harry isn’t very old when he starts this adventure, but achieves great things and encouraging your students to believe this about themselves is a worthwhile task. I loved the idea of the Mirror of Erised and how it helped him in the very end. This is a novel idea to think about. What is a deepest most desperate desire. I honestly hope mine is to see God in the Mirror of Erised. I think things like true love and success in life would come to mind as well. But I hope my heart would instantly go to God and find in the mirror, confirmation and affirmation in His face. This activity would be a great one to go along with reading this book to a class. Ask them to think about what their deepest desire is and have them draw it in a mirror template.

A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson

A child's Garden of Verses is written by Robert Louis Stevenson and illustrated by Ruth Mary Hallock. It was published in 2007 by Barnes & Noble Inc. It is an anthology of poetry. I chose this anthology of poetry before I read the "contemporary" part of this assignment, but I really enjoyed these poems so I decided to write about them. Robert Louise Stevensen writes in a older form of english. He uses words that you do not hear everyday, but this language is what makes his poetry great. These words are what makes his poetry traditionally and stereotypically poetry. He uses apostrophes, similes, personification, repetition and a very traditional rhyme pattern in most all of this poems. In his poem, The Wind he writes "O wind, that sings so loud a song!" This gives the wind human characteristics. This line of the poem is also repeated at the end of every verse. In his poem, My Bed is a Boat he likens his bed to a boat and rhymes about the adventures a little boy takes while he is really asleep. He rarely, if ever, uses alliteration or onomatopoeia. These poems do not relate well to every student. I think most kids will be bored after 2 or 3 of these poems. But, given the right reader and the right context I think a class could appreciate this type of poetry. The book is illustrated by Ruth Mary Hallock. Her drawings are old timey but enchanting. They embody the feel of the poems they illustrate very well. She seems to use drawings and watercolors to get the feel she is looking for. There are not illustrations for every poem in the book. Her drawings are spread out among the poems. While this book has an older feel than some I think the poetry in it is lovely and really embodies what poetry is all about.

One of my favorites is:
Picture-Books In Winter
Summer Fading, winter comes-
Frosty Mornings, tingling thumbs,
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story-books.

Water now is turned to stone
Nurse and I can walk upon;
Still we find the flowing brooks
In the picture story-books.

All the pretty things put by,
Wait upon the children's eye,
Sheep and shepherds, trees and crooks,
In the picture story-books.

We may see how all things are,
Seas and cities, near and far,
And the flying fairies' looks,
In the picture story-books.

How am I to sing your praise,
Happy chimney-corner days,
Sitting safe in nursery nooks,
Reading picture story-books?

I like this poem because it shows the mind of a child realizing that time stands still in books. The child is realizing that as the weather and the world changes outside, the world is always the same and always magic inside a book. I love that Stevenson was able to capture this in a poem.

Rosa by Nikki Giovanni a biography of Rosa Parks

Rosa is written by Nikki Giovanni and illustrated by Bryan Collier. It was published in 2005 by Scholastic Inc. It is a biographical and informational text as it talks about Rosa Parks and the Civil Rights Movement. It won the Coretta Scott King Award for Non-Violent Social Change in 2006.
This children’s book outlines the events surrounding Rosa Parks famous ride on a public bus. It takes you through a normal day for her and lets the reader see that she was not someone on a mission to upset everyone around her, she was just a woman riding a bus who did not want to give up her seat for a white man. The story also relates some of the other major happenings during the civil rights movement such as the march on Washington and Martin Luther King Junior’s famous speech. The illustrations in this book are what really make it a wonderful book. The pictures are made with watercolors and a collage technique. The collages are amazing because of the materials used. When it talks about Rosa working in a sewing factory, Collier uses material to make the collage. The page almost seems to be bunched in places like real fabric would be. In some of the pictures you see the capitol building in the background, reminding the reader that this story affected our government, our history and most importantly our lives today. The coolest parts of the illustrations for me were the ripple affects around Rosa and Mr. King’s heads. When one illustration shows Mr. King giving his speech there is a ripple affect coming from him that shows the picture around him but with the affect from his voice. It shows his affect on the world around him and how his words made a tangible difference in the society he lived in. The crown-like ripple around Mrs. Parks, which is shown on the front cover as well, shows her impact on history. It shows the she stuck out on the bus she was riding as someone going against the grain. The art in this story is truly beautiful. This story makes history real and interesting and shows readers who this woman was. It is no wonder that this story won the Coretta Scott King Award.

Here is Bryan Collier's website for more about his artwork.