A Book Review: Malaika's Costume

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)