Multicultural Children's Books

 Celebrating Ramadan- Diane-Hoyt- Goldsmith

 Photographs by Lawrence Migdale

Type: Multicultural Children’s Book- photography- intended for children ages10-13

Rating: 4 Stars

                Celebrating Ramadan is a book that explains the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, and the traditions that are associated with it.

                I thought this book was actually very interesting to look it. It is more of an informational children’s book as opposed to a typical children’s story book, but it really gets into the details on what Ramadan and the Muslim faith is all about. It told more so from the genre of an informational book, and has an authoritative tone when discussing all the different elements of Ramadan. Instead of having hand illustrated works of art throughout the book, this book uses photographs to keep with the informational tone of the book. There are tons of pictures throughout this book showing lots of the different aspects of Ramadan, from and ordered set of pictures showing how prayer is done, to pictures showing how traditional foods are made.

                Because of the massive amounts of text per page and the tricky language that is used and shown phonetically, I think this book would be good for older elementary students; that are not to say that this book wouldn’t be useful for a read aloud in the classroom for younger aged students. This book would be really useful to read aloud in parts to show the different traditions and customs of the Muslim faith along with their corresponding pictures. For older students, this book could be used in a research project or a multicultural presentation. Either way, I can see this book serving many purposes in the classroom setting. Seeing as this book is giving an unbiased look at the Muslim faith and is used to inform, I would not foresee any problems arising from using it in the classroom; I can see myself using a book like this in the future as a window book for students to look through.

To Be a Kid- Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko

Type: Multicultural children’s book intended for ages 7-10

Rating: 5 Stars

                To Be a Kid shows the things that children from all over the glove have in common. It has images of children from all over the world doing the same activities, and shows that even though we may come from different parts of the world, we all have something in common.

                I read this book as a mirror book, because it showed activities that I think almost every child can relate to. Along with all of these different activities, the book shows photographs of different children from all over the world taking part in the activities. At the bottom of each picture, there is a label to denote just where every child is from. There is a really light and playful tone to this book, which I really liked because it helps get its point across that even though everyone is different does not mean that we do not have things in common. I also really enjoyed the photography used in the book and how it depicts children from different parts of the world and different cultures participating in the same activity. It was really interesting to be able to look at the different labels underneath the pictures and see just where all the different children were from.

                I really think this book would be useful to use in a classroom setting during a lesson about differences and similarities. I think in elementary school it is really important to teach your students that even though not everybody looks the same or has the same type of culture, it is still possible to have things in common with these people. The simplicity of this book would work well with students in lower grade levels, but the meaning of the book will stretch between children of older grade levels.

White Wash- Ntozake Shange

Ilustrations by Michael Sporn

Type:  Multicultural children’s picture book- pastel wash with a striking effect intended for children ages 7-10

Raing: 5 Stars

                White Wash is the story of two African American children, a brother and a sister, who are attacked by two white males on their way home from school. The brother gets pretty badly beaten, and his sister gets her face spray painted white. Afterwards, the little girl is afraid to leave her house but then realizes that she has a right to go outside just like everyone else in the world.

                I really enjoyed this story, even though it is slightly controversial. I thought that this story was really interesting, especially the part where the little sister believes that she is crying white all over her face, when in fact her face is being spray painted white by the two attackers.  Her crying white all over her face seemed pretty symbolic to me meaning that there is a lot of pressure in society to be a certain way; for her, this meant that she needed to be white to fit in. The theme of this book was also very good; in the end, after the little sister has hidden out in her house for a little while, she decides that she has the right to go outside, just like everyone else. In other words, no matter the color of your skin, you still have the right to go out there and do what you want to do or be what you want to be. The illustrations within the book added to the intensity of the book and were beautiful to look at. They looked as though the artist had taken pastel paint, mixed it all around, and then scratched likes into it using a fork before drawing the lines and the characters on the page. They are just so full of color and intensity that they become a beautiful element of the story.

                I would really like to use this book in a classroom someday; however because of the subject matter and the events that unfold throughout the story, I would have to be very careful about how I would approach this book. Just to be safe I would probably send home a permission slip for parents to sign allowing their child to be present during the lesson containing the book. I think that this book would work really well in a lesson about differences and rights; it shows that people tend to treat each other differently based on the type of power group they are in- the majority or the minority, but ends by saying that no matter what group you fall in, you still have the same rights as everyone else. This book would also be great to use for critical literacy. There are elements of it that can be interpreted differently, and elements that give way to conversations on deeper topics such as race and ethnicity, gangs, power struggles, etc.  So, even though this book appears to be slightly controversial, I personally think that there are a lot of elements to it that make it really good for using in a classroom as long as it is handled and taught in an appropriate manner.