About Multicultural Children's Book Day:
The overall mission of the Multicultural Children’s Book Day: Celebrating Diversity in Children’s Literature event is primarily raise awareness for the kid’s books that celebrate diversity, but also to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries.
"The importance of diversity in children’s literature. Our young readers need to see themselves within the pages of a book and experience other cultures, languages, traditions and religions within the pages of a book. We encourage readers, parents, teachers, caregivers and librarians to follow along the fun book reviews, author visits, event details, the multicultural children’s book linky and via our hashtag (#ReadYourWorld) on Twitter and other social media.”
Thank you to the sponsors of this event:
MCCBD’s 2015 Sponsors include Platinum Sponsors: Wisdom Tales Press, Daybreak Press Global Bookshop,Gold Sponsors: Satya House, MulticulturalKids.com, Author Stephen Hodges and the Magic Poof, Silver Sponsors: Junior Library Guild, Capstone Publishing, Lee and Low Books, The Omnibus Publishing. Bronze Sponsors:Double Dutch Dolls, Bliss Group Books, Snuggle with Picture Books Publishing, Rainbow Books, Author FeliciaCapers, Chronicle Books Muslim Writers Publishing ,East West Discovery Press.
Special shout out to Lee & Low Books who sent me several books for review. I chose Grandfather Counts for today's event.
Details:
- Age Range: 6 - 8 years
- Grade Level: Preschool and up
- Series: Reading Rainbow Books
- Paperback: 32 pages
- Publisher: Lee & Low Books; Reprint edition (September 1, 2000)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1584301589
- ISBN-13: 978-1584301585
Summary:
In this contemporary intergenerational story, a biracial girl and her Chinese grandfather overcome language differences and develop a special bond.
My review:
This is a sweet book that tells how generations can come together in love and understanding to learn from each other.
Grandfather has come from China to live with his daughter and family. He does not know English and the family, other than his daughter, do not know Chinese. Adjustments have to be made with all parties concerned. It is only with a daily travel of a train that runs in the back yard, that things begin to change.
Written in first person, I enjoyed how Grandfather and the young grand-daughter would sit out on the concrete wall waiting for the train go by. These sittings helped each to come to an understanding of each other. I am sure by the title of the book, you can figure out what each of them learned but they also learned so much more.
This book reminded me so much of fun times I had with my own Grandfather and by listening to him and watching him intently, I learned something. I hope that some day, my own grand-children will learn something from me. I always learn something from them and that is what love and family is all about.
The illustrations in the book were colorful, large and somewhat exaggerated, a nice addition to the book as a whole. This book was truly great and I would highly recommend it for families who are inter-generational or intercultural. 5 stars!
Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for my open and honest opinion. The views here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. ~Naila Moon
Family Activities related to the book:
- Learn a little Chinese! On the inside cover are the Chinese number to 8 and other words learned in the book. Make flash cards, like I did, with the Chines word on one side and the meaning on the other.
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- Count train cars! Grandfather and his Grand-daughter sat and counted trains every day to learn numbers and words. Find a train near you,or make your own train and count the train cars in Chinese and then English.
- Talk and color! Grandfather and Grand-daughter wave to the train conductor every day.Have your child draw their own train and color it. Talk about what the conductor might be thinking when he sees the pair every day.
Where to find the author:
Help Spread the Word about MCCBD!
1. Spread the word about MCCBD and the need for diverse children’s books! Remember our hashtag, #readyourworld
2. Like MCCBD on Facebook to learn more about authors and books that celebrate diversity.
3. Make a donation. Click here to help get multicultural books into the hands of kids who need them most.
4. Bookmark MCCBD blog to have continual access to an extensive list of diverse children’s books from around the world.
5. Follow MCCBD on Pinterest to keep the inspiration coming. This board is filled with great books and activities related to diversity.
6 comments:
I love what you've shared, both your review and your activity. So happy to be team members today!
What a beautiful review about generational differences. Am making my list of books I want to look at and this is one of them.
I'm so excited to read this book.Thanks for a wonderful review and for celebrating Multicultural Children's Book Day with us.
I noticed this is a Reading Rainbow book. My grandson subscribes to that on our iPad. He loves reading with the Rainbow. Will have him check this one out or "buy" as he says! Thanks for sharing on the Hop.
Love the theme behind the book. Your review makes me go find the book and read it to my 7yo. Thanks for sharing it on KidLitBlogHop!
Fantastic recommendation Naila! These types of inter-generational and inter-racial relationships are becoming more and more important in society and it's a wonderful topic for a picture book. Thanks for sharing in the Kid Lit Blog Hop!
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