My Japan

Estuko Watanabe paints an interesting picture about Japan, and shows the readers directly what is different in the every day culture in her book My Japan. Earlier in the semester, we were asked to pick out a series of books that centered around a cultural aspect, and though my group had chosen the Hispanic culture, I wound up completely forgetting that we had picked a topic, and went on to a topic of my own. Originally I became more interested in learning about Japan after the Tsunami and then the Earthquake had hit, and all I was hearing about on the news was of the tragedy as the Japanese people come from a warm culture full of customs, and as absolutely thriving community. This book was originally intended for K-2nd grade learners, but I think it is a great Fiction-based on Non-Fiction kind of book, and kids learning about geography and cultures could enjoy this book at any age. Little details are what struck me the most, like how they start school in April instead of September and how they kept the same school bag throughout their entire school careers. The food, the drink, vacations, and traditional dress...the transportation with NO street signs ( I'd be lost!), and lids for bathtubs to keep the water warm...I mean this is a cool book. At the end of the book, Watanebe gives us symbols and the Hirigana language, which represents syllables.

I would use this book to teach about the Japanese culture, but also during geographical and cultural studies. As I said before, I would totally use this book for older students as well, but I would probably stick with the primary grade levels, maybe 2nd or 3rd grade. This would be a perfect opportunity to use compare and contrast charts, like a Venn diagram. We could have the students work in small groups, collecting what they do in this country for food, celebrations, transportation, school, etc. After reading the story, the students could contrast what they do with how the Japanese culture works. Another book that I will definitely add to my library someday! :)

Come to the Great World, Poems from Around the Globe

This is a collection of beautiful poetry written by children from all around the world. Some poems followed a rhyming pattern, while others were lengthier using descriptive language. All of the poetry expressed an individual joy or experiences that come from their lives and their lifestyles, which is where we learn about the different cultures and values. I was absolutely impressed by the depth of the words teamed with bright and colorful illustrations, and I do think that this is another book that should be in everyone's classroom--especially while a classroom learns about the components of poetry. We used this book in class when studying units of poetry, and I loved that the children were the authors and that they all came from different backgrounds. As the children are the real authors, the poems in this story were selected by Wendy Cooling, who has edited short stories of Roald Dahl, and in this book she works with Shiela Moxley, a world-traveling painter who studies different cultures from all around the world.

For classroom use, I would use this as a Literacy lesson in unison with geographical and cultural studies. As a pre-activity, students could write their own poem about something they know well from where they live or what they see every day. After reading the poems, we could have the students draw relationships that they make with their poetry and the poems from around the world. When they find one that they can relate to, they could write about why they feel strongly for the poetry, and create their own picture to describe the poetry. I would say this book is more fit for 7-12 year old readers, but it could be used in most classrooms that are practicing a poetry unit.

Children Just Like Me

This is a book that I have used previously for teaching a multiculturalism class after school to Kindergarten and First grade students. I'm crazy about this book...it's basically a collection of perspectives from children all around the world on their native cultures. In each page, the children each talk about their family lives, their pets, schools, friends, favorite foods, religion, etc. and my students loved learning about a different child from around the world every day. How wonderful, right?

The authors of this book traveled to about 30 different countries, interviewing children from each place they traveled to and getting a real feel for their culture. Barnabas and Anabel Kindersley traveled for about 2 years to create this book. Barnabas, a photographer, and Anabel, a teacher were both very passionate about telling the story behind the cultures of these children through interviews and photographs. Awesome work! I can only hope to do something as cool as they have, and what a joy it must be-- creating a way of sharing the stories and cultures with kids from all around the world.


 There is SO much you can do with this book, but for a pre-lesson, we could ask our students to describe their own lives, including all of the same mini-topics in the book (family, pets, food, etc). Later as a post activity, we could have them create a Venn diagram, where they could compare and contrast the lives of their peers with their peers from different countries. The kids could also pick their favorite page and study the culture with book or interactive sources. I could also see this book inspiring kids to write to peers in other countries when they begin making relationships with the children in the story, sharing similar interests.  Personally I think this book should be in every elementary classroom! :)