Yoko Writes Her Name

Posted on June 1, 2017 by cford

Author and Illustrator: Rosemary Wells

Publisher and Year: Hyperion Books for Children, 2008

Number of pages: 22

Genre: Fantasy

The main character of this book, Yoko, is a Japanese-American cat, and she encounters a lot of racial prejudice from some of her classmates because she only knows how to write in Japanese, not English.  Though her teacher encourages and celebrates her uniqueness and diversity from her classmates, a couple girls say that Yoko will not graduate from kindergarten with the rest of the class.  As her other classmates discover her “secret language,” they demand she teach them how to write their names in Japanese, and they end up writing their names in both English and Japanese on their graduation certificates, even the girls who originally made fun of Yoko for her “childish scribbles”.

The images in this book, created using colored pencils, are framed within square or rectangular borders, making the book function as a window into Yoko’s life: full of small reminders of her life in Japan.  Characters or objects often break outside the frame, as the book also functions as a door, opening the conversation for young readers to question their own prejudices and reflect on how they might react in Yoko’s place.  Furthermore, there are small icons in the corners of each two-page spread, with the English word for the picture on the left and the Japanese characters under the picture on the right.  Yoko is often placed at the bottom right side of the picture, showing she is not only powerless and feels inadequate (being low on the page), but also does not feel very secure in her position in the classroom (being on the right side).  Her placement reveals her discomfort at her classmates’ teasing; however, by the end of the story she has moved to the top of the image, symbolizing her newfound confidence and pride in her bilingualism.  The frames around the borders of the illustrations are styled like Japanese origami paper: cherry blossoms, streaks of gold, and birds surround each picture.

      

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Maya’s Blanket/ La Manta de Maya

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

Author: Monica Brown

Illustrator: David Diaz

Publisher and Year: Children’s Book Press, 2015

Number of pages: 32

Tags: K-1, 2-3, Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Family, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: This book is bilingual (English-Spanish). Maya’s grandma stitched her a special blanket, or a manta to use when she was younger. As she grew, her grandma helped Maya make her blanket into a dress. After some time, the dress becomes stained so her grandma makes it into a skirt. When Maya out grows the skirt it is made into a shawl. When that gets worn out, she makes it into a hair ribbon, and finally, a bookmark. Each item her grandma makes her manta into something new, it holds a special meaning. These items help Maya on her adventures or protect her. One day, Maya accidently loses her bookmark. She decides to create a book about her adventures with the manta titled Maya’s Blanket/ La Manta de Maya. When Maya grows up, she shares her book with her daughter that is also snuggled under her own manta.

This book is a take-off on the Yiddish folksong “I had Little Coat.” At the end of the book the author also provides the reader with a glossary for the terms used in Spanish, and explains how this book helps celebrate both her Jewish and Latinx heritage.  This book can serve as window to understand some cultural aspects of people. The manta or special blanket was hand stitched by Maya’s grandma. This book did a good job of demonstrating how one special item could play a role in her life throughout the years. Maya’s manta transformed into many objects that allowed the blanket to be a part of her life. This book can also serve as a mirror for kids who have been given or made something that has meaning. In this book, it is the special blanket.. The experience of Maya and her grandmother can illustrate the special bond they had . This book does a good job of showing how Maya celebrates her culture and tries to incorporate the manta in her life as much as she can. This book can also be a door to teach children about different practices or traditions of people.

The ideology this book explores is the idea of refurbishing and recycling. This book starts with a blanket that gets transformed into a dress, skirt, shawl, hair ribbon, and a bookmark. With patience, care, and love Maya’s grandmother finds a way to make the blanket a part of Maya’s life. That blanket is special to Maya because her grandmother stitched it with her own two hands.

The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside. The colors used are vibrant colors. They portray very calm and neutral images.  The images are adding to the words. The illustrations help capture Maya’s adventures with the manta and her growing up.

 

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Apple Pie 4th of July

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

 

Author: Janet S. Wong

Illustrator: Margaret Chodos-Irvine

Publisher and Year: HMH for Young Readers, 2006

Number of pages: 40

Tags: K-1, 2-3, 4-5 Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Family, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: This book is about a young Chinese-American girl. Her parents own a small neighborhood store that sells Chinese food.  This girl, laments the fact that her their business is open every day except Christmas. It is the fourth of July and the young girl can hear the 4th of July parade down the street, yet her family is cooking Chinese food. The little girl says she smells apple pie from the neighbors upstairs, but in their kitchen, she smells chow mein. She believes that Chinese food is just not the kind of food one eats on Independence Day. The little girl seems a bit restless and annoyed throughout the day and customers come in and buy simple things like and potato chips, while her family focuses on tradition. She claims that no one wants Chinese food on the fourth of July and that her parents do not understand all American things, since they were not born in this country. In the evening, the store starts filling up with people who are in the mood for Chinese food. The girl realizes that being American means so much more than she thought. Although it was not stated, it appears the little girl understands that cultures can merge.

This book can serve as window to understand what it is like to straddle two cultures. This book portrayed the difficulties of a young girl understanding and embracing her culture as well as being patriotic. This story is one that illustrates how America is diverse and  that we all have our own traditions. This book can also serve as a mirror for multicultural children who are learning to embrace their cultural identity. As previously mentioned, the book portrays the struggle of a young Chinese-American girl who is trying to straddle two cultures.  This book can also be a door to teach children about different practices or traditions that people hold. Our country has so many cultures with different traditions, and no one tradition is better or the right one to practice even on the fourth of July.

The ideology this book explores is the idea that there is no one way to be American. There is a buildup of frustration throughout the book. As the little girl expresses her discontent toward her family for making chinse food on the 4th of July. However, the girl is pleasantly surprised when all the “Americans” begin coming into the store in search of Chinese food. This teaches the main character that there are many ways to celebrate the 4th of July.

The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside. The illustrations are bold. They help illustrate both cultures. For many of the pages, the little girl is positioned on the left side, meaning she is more secure. For some of the illustrations the young girl is facing away or facing down. Those illustrations help portray her frustration. They help convey those emotions.   The images are adding to the words by showing the little girl facing away as she is expressing her frustration with her parents. The illustrations help capture the emotions the little girl is experiencing.

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BunnyBear

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

Author: Andrea J. Loney

Illustrator: Carmen Saldana

Publisher and Year: Albert Whitman company, 2017

Number of pages: 32

Tags: K-1, 2-3, 4-5 Fiction, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: This story’s protagonist is a bear. All this bear wants to be is a bunny. He went by the name of BunnyBear. Although he looked like a bear, he wiggled his nose, nibbled on strawberries, and bounced through the forest just like a bunny. All the other bears thought he was odd because he didn’t do things that bears did and he didn’t belong. He follows a bunny and tries everything he can think of to be accepted by the bunnies, but nothing works. As he is bouncing through the forest, he meets Grizzlybun. Grizzly bun is a bunny who feels and acts like a bear. They find happiness and belonging in the friendship they create by accepting each other.

This book can serve as window for children to understand and discuss self-identity. This book’s characters go on a journey to find acceptance as they are embracing who they feel they truly are. This book can also serve as a mirror children who might feel as though they don’t belong. As previously mentioned, the book portrays the struggle of a bear who feels like a bunny and a bunny who feels like a bear. They find one another and create a friendship that allows them to feel accepted.  This book can also be a door to discuss how it is ok to look one way on the outside and feel differently on the outside.

The ideology this book explores is the idea that it is ok to look on way on the outside but feel differently on the outside. This book is all about finding acceptance and staying true to who you are, Bunnybear and Grizzlybun learn to be true to themselves and together as friends eventually win over the forest.

The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside. We get to witness Bunnybear on his adventure through the forest. The illustrations are bold and use dark colors. Dark colors typically mean confinement. Bunnybear and Grizzlybun felt confined.   They help illustrate the differences the animals feel in regards to who they are and how they act. For some of the illustrations Grizzlybun takes up the whole page meaning Grizzlybun is strong. The illustrations help capture the emotions Grizzlybun and Bunnybear are feeling throughout their journey to acceptance.

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This Land Is Your Land

Posted on June 1, 2017 by cford

Author/Lyricist: Woody Guthrie

Illustrator: Kathy Jakobsen

Publisher and Year: Little, Brown and Company, 1998

Number of pages: 32

Genre: Poetry

This picture book is about the song “This Land Is Your Land” by Woody Guthrie.  In the story, the narrator travels across the United States of America, seeing the diversity and celebration of culture and community everywhere he goes.  He also sees the division evident in society, and the classist and racist divides between people; yet it is his stalwart hope that brotherhood will win out over separation and prejudice.

The pictures at the beginning of the book fill the entire page; this draws the audience immediately into the story (and song).  As the stanza progresses, however, the images become restricted by borders and walled in, becoming windows to different locations across America.  Then the second stanza begins and the borders are gone again.  Now the borders become more a part of the picture itself, having small images within them, and quotes around the edges (most are Woody Guthrie quotes).  The pattern repeats itself until the end of the book, where the last stanza is displayed on a three-page spread that shows people of many cultures and ethnicities crowded onto a grassy plain representing the United States; here there are no borders nor sections, but rather everyone is collected together into one large group.  This is representative of the lyricist’s and illustrator’s hope for acceptance and racial tolerance among all people.  The ideologies supported by these lyrics and images are of diversity and brotherhood.

The images in this book were created in oil on canvas, and the book states that the painted borders were inspired by notch carvings found in traditional “tramp art”.  Both the detailed pictures and the borders of the images speak to the extensive research the illustrator conducted on Woody Guthrie’s life, as the illustrations feature people and places that were important to him.  At the end of the book there is a biography on Woody Guthrie and sheet music for the song.

      

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Families, Families, Families!

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

Author: Suzanne Lang and Max Lang

Illustrator: N/A

Publisher and Year: Random House Books, 2015

Number of pages: 32

Tags: K-1, 2-3, Fiction, Diversity, Family, Amy Sanchez, Award Book

Analysis: This book explores what different families could look like. The authors created an engaging text that uses simple language that presents nonjudgmental information. Families can be a mom and dad, a single mom, a single dad, two dads, two moms, an aunt, a grandma or being adopted. This book also portrays families of parents that are married, not married, and families with step siblings. They portray almost any type of family you can imagine.

This book can serve as window to understand that there is not one correct way of what a family looks like This book portrays all different combinations of families. Children can understand that there are different family structures.  This book can also serve as a mirror for children who come from different family structures. This book can also be a door to teach children about the wide variety of families.

The ideology this book explores is the diversity in family structures, but what makes a family is if you love each other. The book is strengthened by illustrations to depict the different families.

The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside. The illustrations use animal portraits to illustrate the many ways that families can be formed. There is some humor in the illustrations sometimes using goofy facial expressions as well as a varying animal combinations to form different family types. For example, when it talks about adoption it uses a sheep as the parents and a baby wolf as the child. It discusses how some children have many pets and it’s a hippo family that has many birds as pets. The illustrations add to the text and give it some humor with the use of animals.

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Death Is Stupid

Posted on June 1, 2017 by cford

Author and Illustrator: Anastasia Higginbotham

Publisher and Year: The Feminist Press, 2016

Number of Pages: 65

Genre: Realistic fiction

This book is about a little boy whose grandmother has just died, and the narrator discusses with the boy the different ways adults talk (or avoid talking) about death.  Their conversation, as well as the interactions the child has with adults around him, highlights the fact that children are much more perceptive and literal than adults believe.  It also brings up the sometimes difficult and controversial topic of dealing with death.

All of the images in the book are positioned within a white frame of the page, but the little boy breaks the border with the tips of his body.  This to me speaks of his refusal to go along with what the adults are saying to him — his grandmother is not asleep, but dead.  His more concrete understanding of death brings him out of the book slightly, so that he does not fit fully within their narrative.  Also the boy’s grandmother and her possessions go outside the frame as well — this reflects her similar personality to the boy and the fact that she is gone from this world.  The pictures are framed to reflect windows into the adults’ view of death and dying, and the boy instead uses them as doors to move outside of their perspective into his own.

The illustrations and pages in this book were made by hand by the author: she drew and collaged on brown paper, then photographed the resulting images and printed them in a book.  Her author’s note states that she has been making books by hand her whole life as a way to cope with change and growth.  This gives the story a very personal touch, as she has created images with her personal objects.  

     

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The Princess and the Warrior

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

Author: Duncan Tonatiuh

Illustrator: N/A

Publisher and Year: Abrams Books for Young Readers, 2016

Number of pages: 40

Tags: K-1, 2-3, 4-5 Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Family, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: The Princess and the Warrior is about the origin of the volcanoes Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl that overlook Mexico City. This Aztec legend follows the life of Popo and Izta. Izta is a beautiful princess and Popoca is a brave soldier. Izta enjoys spending her days in the fields teaching the workers about poetry. She has many suitors that traveled from distant places who wanted to marry her. They offered her gifts and a luxurious life. She wasn’t interested in their gifts. One day Popoca approached her and declared his love to her. He told her how he knew she had a kind and beautiful heart. He told her if they married he would promise to love her for who she is and stay by her side no matter what. Izta heard the honesty in his voice and fell in love with him.

When she told her father who she wanted to marry a soldier he was not content. However, he knew Popoca was brave and they had been at war with Jaguar Claw. The emperor told Popoca if he could defeat the Jaguar Claw he would be able to marry Izta. Popoca gathered his most courageous men and went to war. The war was not easy and it was taking longer than expected. Jaguar Claw bribed one of Popoca’s soldier and asked him t go back to the princess and tell her Popoca had been killed and to take this potion. The soldier did and the princess took the potion. She slept forever. When Popoca got back he found her and stood by her side as he had promised. That is the origin of the volcanoes Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl that overlook Mexico City. To this day volcano Popocatepetl is active while volcano Iztaccihuatl is dormant.

This book can serve as window to understand legends and history from other cultures. This book tells the story of the origin of two of Mexico’s volcanoes. This story also depicts some of the history by having emperors and princesses. This book can also serve as a mirror for multicultural children who grow up listening to some of these legends. This book can also be a door to teach children about different legends in different cultures. Students can compare and contrast different cultures and the legends they tell.

The ideology this book explores is Mexican legends. There is a clear story to explain the origin of the volcanoes Iztaccihuatl and Popocatepetl that overlook Mexico City.

The illustrations used in this book are very neat. Many of illustrations are influenced by pre-Columbian art. They illustrate the culture by depicting the characters with traditional clothing from the time. The illustrations are very detailed and well executed.  The images are adding to the words to convey the message being conveyed.

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I Hate English

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

 

Author: Ellen Levine

Illustrator: Steve Bjorkman

Publisher and Year: Scholastic Inc., 1989

Number of pages: 32

Tags: 2-3, 4-5 Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: This book is about a young girl named Mei Mei who just moved to the United States from Hong Kong. She could understand some English but didn’t want to speak it. She is disinterested in learning and speaking English. She feels as though learning English would make her forget Chinese, leaving her family and culture behind. Mei Mei meets Nancy, a teacher, who insist on helping her become more comfortable with speaking English. Nancy takes her on a walking trip where she won’t stop talking until Mei Mei becomes annoyed that she bursts out talking in English. This experience helped Mei Mei realize that she can have both cultures and languages. Learning a new language doesn’t mean forgetting and laving behind the other one.

This book can serve as window to understand the feelings that that ELL students experience in the process of learning a new language.   This book portrayed the difficulties of a young girl understanding to embrace her culture as well as learning English. This book can also serve as a mirror for multicultural children who are learning to embrace their cultural identity and maybe struggling to understand that they can have both their own culture and the American one without leaving one or the other behind.. As previously mentioned, the book portrays the struggle of a young Chinese-American girl who is trying to straddle two cultures.  This story is one that illustrates how America is diverse and how some people speak more than one language. This book can also be a door to teach children about different languages and their cultural significance. Our country has so many cultures with each a different language, and no one language is better or the right one to practice.

The ideology this book explores is the idea of bilingualism. There is a buildup of frustration throughout the book, as the little girl expresses her disinterest in learning English. However, the girl is pleasantly surprised when she realizes that she can speak English and Chinese without losing her own culture.

The illustrations used in this book use an open frame, so our view is from the outside.. They help illustrate both cultures. For many of the pages, the little girl is positioned on the left side, meaning she is more secure. For some of the illustrations the young girl is facing away or facing down. Those illustrations help portray her frustration. They help convey those emotions. The illustrations help capture the emotions the little girl is experiencing. The illustrator used jagged lines that convey the message of trouble emotions.  The illustrations used capillarity which looked like thin squiggly like capillaries that signaled nervousness.

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Let’s Talk About Race

Posted on June 1, 2017 by asanche1

Author: Julius Lester

Illustrator: Karen Barbour

Publisher and Year: Amistad Pres, 2005

Number of pages: 32

Tags: 4-5, Fiction, Diversity, Culture, Amy Sanchez

Analysis: This book explores the idea that we are all the same under our skin. The author encourages the reader to tell his or her story by thinking about all the attributes that makes them unique. That could be a favorite book, food, religion, heritage, etc. Then the author draws attention to race. He acknowledges that people have tried to use race to prove that they are better than another, but the author encourages the reader to realize that beneath our skin we are all the same. He emphasizes that race is not all there is to one’s identity and discusses how there are many attributes that help define who we are. He ends with challenging the reader to consider taking off their skin and see that we are all the same.

This book can serve as window to understand that there are many aspects that make up our identity. This book portrayed the different attributes that make up the authors identity.  This book can also serve as a mirror for multicultural children who are learning to embrace their cultural identity and to learn that their ethnicity is not the only thing that defines them. This book can also be a door to teach children that race is not the most important aspect of a person, because in the end we are just bones. We need to learn to know and understand those around us.

The ideology this book explores is the idea that race is only on aspect of a person and that underneath the skin we are all the same. The author discusses the elements that make up his story and identity. He emphasizes that race is not the most important or the only aspect to his identity. He says that he knows race plays a role, but he is so many other things as well.

The illustrations used in this book are intriguing. The cover has faces of people of different color. The illustrations use very vibrant colors throughout the book. The lines used are very soft. Some of the pages have illustrations that are layered and catch your attention.  The illustrations are truly beautiful and bold, adding to the overall text.

 

 

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