Picture Book #26--Grandfather Counts

Title:  Grandfather Counts:

Author:  Andrea Cheng

Illustrator:  Ange Zhang

Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A

Lexile Measure:  AD410L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Realistic Fiction/Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  Accept and be patient with one another

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Gong Gong and Helen

Awards:  N/A

Date of Publication:  2000

Publisher:  Lee & Low

ISBN:  1584300108

Grandfather Counts is a touching story of a Chinese-American girl named Helen and her Chinese grandfather, Gong Gong, getting to know and learn from one another.  Gong Gong comes all the way from China to live with Helen's family and he doesn't know a bit of English.  Likewise, Helen doesn't know a bit of Chinese.  Together they learn from each other.

This would be a great story to read to children.  In the front of the book, there is a Chinese counting table with numbers from 1-10.  The story itself contains a lot of Chinese words and numbers.  It would be great for students to read or hear so that they could get a little taste of the Chinese vocabulary.  It would also be great to spark a writing assignment or discussion about language barriers.  Students could talk about whether or not they know someone who was new to this country and had to overcome difficulties with our language or if they have ever been in that situation, having to learn a new language.  They could tell about how they or the other person might have felt and how they overcame that difficulty.

Picture Book #25--Lord of the Cranes

Title:  Lord of the Cranes

Author:  (retold by) Kerstin Chen

Illustrator:  Jian Jiang Chen

Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A
Lexile Measure:  N/A
Genre:  Children's Literature
Subgenre:  Traditional/Literature for a Diverse Society
Theme:  Do unto others as you would have done unto you.
Primary and Secondary Characters:  Tian, Wang
Awards:  N/A
Date of Publication:  2000
Publisher:  North-South Books
ISBN:  073581192X

Lord of the Cranes tells the story of Tian, a holy-type man who lives in Heaven and decides to come back to Earth to see how well people are treating others.  Disguised as a beggar, he finds an inn-keeper named Wang who kindly takes him in and feeds him, day after day, even though he has no money to pay for anything.  After weeks of being taken care of by Wang--who asks for nothing in return--Tian decides to pay him back by painting beautiful cranes on the walls of his inn.  These cranes were magical and with the clap of Tian's hands, the cranes leaped off the wall and performed an amazing dance.  Tian left the cranes and after a while, people were coming from all over China to see these wonderful dancing cranes, making Wang a rich man in the process.  One day, Tian comes back.  Without hesitation, Wang feeds him and offers him shelter.  Tian plays a beautiful song on a flute that came from Heaven and then he and the cranes disappear back to where they had came, asking Wang to pass along his incredible kindness.

This story reminds me a little of The Christmas Guest, a song I often hear around Christmas time.  In it, Jesus promises a man named Conrad that he will have Christmas dinner with him.  Three times, a stranger knocks on Conrad's door and three times it is not Jesus, but some lonely, poor soul.  Each time, though, Conrad helps the person by giving them food, shelter, warmth--whatever it was that they had come for.  In the end Conrad finds that the three strangers who had came to his door had been Jesus in disguise.  Jesus had wanted to test the kindness of Conrad.  Anyways, that's what this reminded me of.  It is a wonderful Chinese folk tale that really shows the Chinese culture.  The illustrations are very colorful and bright.  I think this would be great for a classroom.  It has a wonderful lesson--treat others the way you want to be treated--something that I think is often forgotten in classrooms today.  The story could spark a great discussion about what students would do if they were in Wang's situation.  Students could also participate in a writing assignment about the nicest or kindest thing they have done for someone else or that someone else has done for them.

Picture Book #24--Unlce Bobby's Wedding

Title:  Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Author:  Sarah S. Brannen
Illustrator:  Sarah S. Brannen
Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A
Lexile Measure:  AD530L
Genre:  Children's Literature
Subgenre:  Fantasy/Literature for a Diverse Society
Theme:  Love is love.
Primary and Secondary Characters:  Chloe, Uncle Bobby, Uncle Jamie
Awards:  N/A
Date of Publication:  2008
Publisher:  Penguin Group
ISBN:  0399247122

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is a great children’s book that addresses a very controversial topic: gay marriage.  Rather than use people, Sarah Brannen used guinea pigs.  I think this was very smart because it takes some of the shock out of the topic for kids.  Chloe’s favorite uncle Bobby is getting married to Jamie.  At first, Chloe doesn’t understand why her Uncle Bobby needs to get married.  She refers to him as her “special uncle”.  Chloe’s mother explains to her that Bobby and Jamie love each other and when grown-ups love each other that much, they get married.  Bobby explains it to Chloe by saying that he and Jamie love each other and they are ready to share their lives together and start a family of their own.  In order to ease Chloe into this new event in their lives, Bobby and Jamie spend the day with Chloe doing fun things, like going to the ballet, out to dinner, sailing, and roasting marshmallows—just the three of them.  In the end, Chloe is excited to get a new uncle.

I think this book—and others like it—should be incorporated into classrooms.  I understand that it is an exceptionally touchy subject but if teachers are going to help combat the growing problem of intolerance in classrooms then it needs to start at a very young age.  It is so important that teachers use their inner-discipline and do not allow their own feelings and beliefs on the subject to interfere with the way they teach their students to treat others.  Gay/lesbian students will cross a teacher’s path at some point during their career and it is crucial that teachers do not judge and do not allow their other students to judge either.  This book eases children into the subject of gay marriage and alternative families by using animals rather than people.  I think this effectively introduces the topic to young children without being too real and shocking for them.  Teachers can use this book to simply show that it doesn’t matter who is in your family or what role they play in that family, love is love and as long as everyone in the family loves and accepts one another, it doesn’t matter how others perceive you.  This topic can be addressed in classrooms without pushing beliefs on students or being too graphic.  If it is okay to talk about traditional marriage or even step-parents and other types of alternative families, then this should certainly be included as well.

Picture Book #23--Grandfather's Journey

Title:  Grandfather's Journey

Author:  Allen Say

Illustrator:  Allen Say

Grade Level Equivalent:  4.2

Lexile Measure:  AD650L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Biography/Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  Live life to the fullest.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Grandfather, Allen Say

Awards:  Caldecott Medal (Won, 1994)
Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards (Won, 1994)
California Book Awards (Nominated, 1995)
Date of Publication:  1993
Publisher:  Houghton Mifflin

ISBN:  0395570352

Grandfather’s Journey tells the story of author Allen Say’s grandfather, who traveled from his homeland of Japan to see America.  It tells about his first time on a steamship and his first time wearing European clothes.  He was so enamored with the mountains and coastline of California that he made it his new home.  But after a while he became homesick for his native Japan.  He moved back there and married his childhood sweetheart.  It wasn’t long before the two of them moved back to California where they had a daughter.  But yet again, he grew homesick and wanted to go back to Japan.  When his daughter was grown, they all moved back home.  There his daughter found a husband, and had a son, Allen Say.  Say’s grandfather often talked about California and longed to return.  But just as he planned a trip to see his beloved state again, war broke out and the trip never happened.  Allen Say’s grandfather never made it back to California again before his death.  Say decided to make the trip himself, eventually settling in California.  However, he inherited his grandfather’s love of Japan and often makes the trip out to his native land, traveling back and forth, just as his grandfather did.

This book would be a wonderful addition to any classroom.  It has illustrations that are very rich and colorful and show the nature that you would find in the Japanese village where Say’s grandfather lived.  It would be a great book to show children about the culture of that region.  It would also be great to spark a discussion with the students about where their grandparents or great-grandparents came from and how they would feel if they had a home in one country but also felt as if another country was home, as well. Which would they feel more comfortable in and why?

Picture Book #22--It Takes A Village

Title:  It Takes a Village

Author:  Jane Cowen-Fletcher

Illustrator:  Jane Cowen-Fletcher

Grade Level Equivalent:  2.1

Lexile Measure:  390L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Realistic Fiction/ Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  It takes a village to raise a child.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Yemi and Kokou, the mother, the villagers

Awards:  N/A

Date of Publication:  1994

Publisher:  Scholastic, Inc.

ISBN:  0590465988

It Takes a Village tells the story of Yemi, Kokou, and their mother as they head of to the market of the small African town they live in.  Yemi promises to watch Kokou and take care of him all by herself while their mother works.  Their mother just smiles because she knows no one ever raises a child alone in a village like theirs.  This is a lesson Yemi learns when she stops to buy some peanuts for Kokou and he wanders off. 

This book would be great to have in a classroom because it shows the culture of the African villages students hear about.  The family lives on a compound, something I'm sure not a lot of students will be familiar with.  The family also grows their produce and takes it to the local market to sell.  The women carry the large baskets filled with their product to sell on their heads until they arrive at the market.  This is probably something kids have seen on TV or read in books but maybe didn't know was real.  It is a really good book that can show how people in Africa live and how it is different from how we live here in America.  As for classroom applications, students could list the differences in the African culture that they saw in the book and tell how it is different from the culture we have here.  How does the life of Yemi differ from the lives of children the same age here in the United States?

Picture Book #21--My Very Own Room

Title:  My Very Own Room/ Mi Propio Cuartito

Author:  Amada Irma Perez

Illustrator:  Maya Christina Gonzalez

Grade Level Equivalent:  N/A

Lexile Measure:  700L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Biography/Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  It's great to have a big family, but you still need some privacy.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  The girl (who is never named), her five brothers, and their parents

Awards:  Americas Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature (Nominated, 2000)

Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs) (Won, 2001)

Date of Publication:  2000

Publisher:  Lee & Low

ISBN:  0892391642

My Very Own Room is based on the life of the author, Amada Irma Perez.  It tells the story of a little girl who is nine years old and fed up with having to share a room with her five younger brothers.  There is no room and definitely no peace and quiet.  The house gets even more crowded when her parents have friends or relatives stay over while they come to America to look for jobs and make a better life for themselves.  But there is one room in the small two bedroom house they all share that would be perfect to make a space just for the little girl.  With help from her family, the girl gets her very own room in the storage area of the house.  It may be small, but it's perfect for her.

This book would be a great addition to a classroom because it not only tells the story of dealing with a lot of younger siblings, but it is also a great lesson in culture changes.  The family is from Mexico and lives in a small two bedroom house with eight people while the girl's father works the night shift at a factory job trying to provide for his large family.  She says that sometimes friends and relatives come over to stay while they search for jobs and homes in the new country they have arrived in.  This is something that many students will have never dealt with and probably will never have to deal with in their own lives.  It is a good lesson about how this family of Mexicans live while struggling to get by, something that a lot of Hispanic families go through.  There are so many students who have their own rooms even though they have large families.  Or maybe they share a room with just one brother or sister.  But there are certainly not a lot of students who have had to share a room with five other people.  This story is also written in Spanish.  The two languages appear throughout the story.  This book would be great to start a discussion with the students on how they would feel having to share such a small house with seven other people in it.

Picture Book #20--Yoshi's Feast

Title:  Yoshi's Feast

Author:  Kimiko Kajikawa

Illustrator:  Yumi Heo

Grade Level Equivalent:  2.7

Lexile Meaure:  AD540L

Genre:  Children's Literature

Subgenre:  Realistic Fiction/Literature for a Diverse Society

Theme:  Being greedy and selfish only hurts yourself.

Primary and Secondary Characters:  Yoshi and Sabu

Awards:  Young Hoosier Book Award (Nominated, 2003)

Charlotte Zolotow Award (Nominated, 2001)

Red Clover Award (Nominated, 2002)

Date of Publication:  2000

Publisher:  Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc.

ISBN:  0789426072

Yoshi's Feast tells the story of Yoshi, a fan maker in Japan, and Sabu, Yoshi's neighbor who runs a hibachi broiling eels.  Sabu makes the best broiled eels in town but no one ever buys them because he lives too far out of town.  So Yoshi sits there every night smelling the delicious eels while Sabu sits there every night having to eat all the leftovers.  Yoshi believes that Sabu should share some of those eels with him since he is his neighbor but Sabu thinks Yoshi should buy some.  One day Yoshi asks Sabu why he won't share his wonderful broiled eels with him.  Sabu tells him he should pay for them like everyone else would have to.  Yoshi then tells him that smelling his eels is even better than eating them because he gets to keep his money and now his money box grows heavier every day since he is not spending it on eels.  Meanwhile, Sabu's money box grows lighter every day because nobody will buy his eels.  To get back at Yoshi for smelling his eels but not buying any, Sabu decides to broil samma, the stinkiest, smelliest fish in all of Japan.  This makes Yoshi's house smell terrible.  Not even his fan can get rid of the smell.  The smell is so bad that Yoshi can't even eat his rice without getting sick from the horrible samma smell.  In order to call a truce, Yoshi tells Sabu to broil his eels again and in return, Yoshi would bring in customers, which he does.  After selling his eels all day, Sabu brings over a platter of them to share with Yoshi.

This would be a great book to read to students in a whole-class setting.  I don't see any type of writing assignment or anything coming from this.  Just a fun book to read to students.  It is set in Japan so they get a little taste of another culture while reading a very funny story.  They will also learn a valuable lesson about being greedy and selfish.  Yoshi was greedy with his money, refusing to buy any of Sabu's eels even though he was rich and Sabu was poor.  Then Sabu decided to get even by stinking up the place with that nasty fish.  It's a great way of teaching students to help those who have less than themselves.  Students will also get a chance to learn various Japanese words such as "hibachi", "samma", and "arigato".