Heart and Soul

Title: Heart and Soul: The Story of American and African Americans

Author and Illustrator: Kadir Nelson

Publishing Company: Balzer + Bray

Copyright Date: 2011

Pages: 108

Genre/Category: Nonfiction

 I chose this book to continue with my reading on African-American history. This book is sectioned into twelve different chapters of five hundred years of black history. The book describes how the Capital building in Washington D.C. is filled with pictures of white males and a few Native Americans, but there are no African Americans even though they helped build it. The book talks about the revolutionary war, in which African Americans fought, a new president, and a new country. Although African Americans helped build the Capital, most were still held as slaves. The book shares the struggles that African-Americans faced during this time and what they did to try to fix the system and gain their rights. It shares information about the civil rights along with historical contexts of what was going on with laws, people, and history during that time.

The illustrations in this book are amazing and captivating. There are single and double-page spreads throughout the book. Each illustration is done in portrait style done with oil. All the pictures correlate with every page.

This book is recommended for middle and high school levels the only thing I would do with book is use it as an extension of the social studies unit. I would use this book when discussing the Jim Crow Laws, Civil Rights, and World War II. This book would tie perfectly with the series Roots and could be used with middle school students to compare the television series with a book.  I would pair this book with Henry's Freedom Box and The History of the Underground Railroad for deeper discussions. This book has a few awards Coretta Scott King Author Award (and for Illustrator Honor Book) 2012, NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work – Children’s category.

BAY... is my skin tone

Title: Tan to Tamarind: Poems about the color brown

Author: Malathi Michelle Iyengar

Illustrator: Jamel Akib

Publishing Company: Children's Book Press

Copyright Date: 2009

Pages: 32

Genre/Category: Multicultural

I chose this book in hopes of finding a color that fit me. This book is a collection of fifteen poems about the color brown. All the poems use imagery in some ways, such as smells, sights, sounds, tastes, and textures helps to bring the hues to life.

 A mug of hot chocolate, smooth and creamy brown.

Tasty, toasty brown.

Delightful, delectable brown.

The poems celebrate the diversity and the connections in nature, culture, place, and language among African-Americans, Latinos, Indians, Native Americans, and many mixed-race children. The last poem talks about all things brown and is accompanied by a picture of smiling brown children’s faces.

Illustrations are done in warm autumn colors of brown on double-page spread. My favorite illustration was the last page with all the children representing a different shade of brown. On the last page, there is an author’s note on why she wrote the book. I truly can connect with her reasoning.

This book is recommended for second through sixth grade. I would name a color and ask the students to spend one or two minutes writing down something that comes to mind when they think of that color. I would allow the students to create poems about their favorite color of brown. The poems can be used with two students as a class script. It can be incorporated with an “All about me” unit.  It could be used in art as an activity to achieve one of the shades of brown mentioned in the book. This book has one award 2009 Asian/ Pacific Award for Literature Honor book.

Rice Pudding

 

Title:Cazuela:That The Farm Maiden Stirred

Author: Samantha R. Vamos

Illustrator: Rafael Lopez

Publishing Company: Charlesbridge Publishing

Copyright Date: 2011

Pages: 32

Genre/Category: Multicultural/ Hispanic

 I chose this book for the multicultural section. This story is about a girl who prepares a pot of rice pudding with the farm animals to serve at the fiesta. Throughout the story they sing and dance while adding the ingredients to the pot.

This is the duck

that went to the market

to buy the sugar

to flavor the LECHE

made fresh by the VACA

while teaching the CABRA

that churned the CREMA

to make the MANTEQUILLA

that went into the CAZUELA that the farm maiden stirred.  The story contained 21 Spanish words embedded in the text on every page. The author added a new Spanish word in place of the English word from the previous page.

The illustrations are bright with a mixture of collage, colored pencil, and watercolors. They reminded me of the Mexican markets, bright and colorful. I love how the illustrator used orange/yellow to make the illustrations pop off the pages, after starting with white pages and a small illustration on each. At the end of the book there is a Glossary of Spanish Words and a recipe for the pudding.

This book is recommended for second through sixth grade. It would be a great read-aloud for Latino Heritage Month and Cinco De Mayo. Use the book to create class discussions themes such as, farms, farm animals, food, recipes, and team work. I would use this in Home-Economics to try and prepare the rice pudding. This book has several awards Pura Belpre Illustrator Honor Book, ALA Notable Children's Book, Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts, NY Public Library's 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing, and Texas 2x2 Reading List.