Malaika lives in Trinidad with her grandmother. She feels left out when she is without a costume for the kiddies carnival. Her mother is working in Canada and does not have enough money to send to get Malaika her dream costume. Granny offers her costume from when she was a child but Malaika gets upset because she wants her costume to be unique. Then she gets an idea. She decides to use what she already has to make a costume of her very own and participate in the carnival. With bright and colorful illustrations the book will transport your whole class to Trinidad and be able to feel the fun excitment of the carnival.
I would use this book in my class to show students how different cultures celebrate holidays. We would do reseach on what people do during carnival and what the parade is like. Then at the end we would have our own class carnival where the students can design their own costume, design what they think a parade float should look like, and learn a traditional dance.
Book title: Malaika's Costume
Author: Nadia L. Hohn
Illustrator: Irene Luxbacher
Genre: International Literature, Realistic Fiction
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2016
Publisher: Groundwood Books
Standard Used: Observe and perform a dance from a familiar culture that utilizes multiple elements of dance. (first grade art)
Unhei has just moved to America from Korea and is nervous about starting a new school and is wondering if the kids will like her. She decides that she is going to choose a new name and tells her classmates that she will pick one next week. The kids in Unhei's class want to help by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from. She goes through the names pretending to have one of the american names. When a classmate comes to Unhei's neighborhood and learns what her name is and what it means he decides to hide the jar. The next morning, the students search for the jar; Unhei tells everyone that she has pick a name. She writes 'Unhei' on the board and tells everyone that she wants to pick the name that she already has. The book has realistic cartoon illustrations that encapsulate the emotions that Unhei goes through.
I would use this book to discuss character growth and have the students write how they think Unhei develops throughout the story. We would talk about how in the beginning she was nervous about if the american kids would like her and by the end of the story she was proud of who she is and what her name is.
Book title: The Name Jar
Author and Illustrator: Yangsook Choi
Genre: Diverse Perspective, Realistic Fiction
Number of pages: 40
Copyright year: 2001
Publisher: Dragonfly Books
Standard used: Use linking words and phrases (e.g., because, therefore, since, for example) to connect opinion and reasons. [W.3.1c]
Strictly No Elephants is a picture book with brush painted illustrations that seem to bring the story to life. The book is about a child who has a tiny pet elephant. He wants to take his elephant to pet club day, but when they get to pet club day there is a sign on the door that says, "Strictly No Elephants." Find out what the boy and tiny elephant do by reading the rest of the story!
This would be a great book to use in a class to teach students about being inclusive even is others may seem different. After reading the story you could have your students write or draw how the characters responded to what happened in the story, or how they would have responded if they were in the characters place.
Book title: Strictly No Elephants
Author: Lisa Manichiv
Illustrator: Taeenun Yoo
Genre: Picture book
Number of pages: 32
Copyright year: 2015
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Standard used: Describe how characters in a story respond to major events and challenges. [RL.2.3]
