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.