Notable Books for a Global Society

TCH_LRN_307

Kaitlin Ramsey & Allison La Rue

Washington State University - College of Education

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Introduction:

The Notable Books for a Global Society (NBGS) project is the analysis and comparison

of eight Notable Books for a Global Society. We chose books from the year range of 2011

through 2016. Throughout this project, we read, summarized and analyzed eight different books

and then chose the book we thought best embodied the definition of NBGS. We will provide

what the strengths and weaknesses were for the books we chose, analyze our winning book’s

literary elements, and provide our own definition of what we what we thought multicultural and

global literature was and how our definition changed as we worked on the project. Throughout

this project, we were introduced to new literature that shows us different cultures and lifestyles.

We plan on using some of the books we read in our own classroom one day to introduce different

cultures to our students and also show to them that there are books out there for every culture

imaginable.

Purpose of this assignment:

The purpose of this assignment was to learn how to critically analyze and evaluate pieces

of global literature. This will help us become well-rounded, knowledgeable teachers that know

about the world of global literature so that we can use these books in our classroom to inspire our

students to be open to different people, cultures, and traditions. After we each read our books and

had eight different representations of multicultural literature, we evaluated what we learned from

each one and how we could use them in our classroom. Many students ask their teacher why they

are doing each assignment that they are given. What is the purpose of it? By reading these books,

we can accurately answer this question to our students as reading global literature, it allows us to

be aware and understand people who seem different from us, receive a positive representation of

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our own cultural group, and introduce ourselves to the literary traditions of different cultures

around the globe (Tunnell, 2016, p. 200). `

First, we found that reading multicultural literature allowed us to foster an awareness,

understanding, and appreciation of the cultures and people represented in the book that seemed

different from us initially (Tunnell, 2016, p. 200). Throughout our lives, we are presented with

people from cultures that are different from ours, and often this makes us a little hesitant to get to

know this person, whether we like to admit it or not. These books provided us with stories of

people that have (or sometimes have not and regretted it) taken that step trying to get to know

someone who is different from them, and the outcome that resulted because of that positive

action. Sometimes we are not even aware we are illustrating this biased behavior, and these

books bring those hesitations to life and make us aware of the actions we need to take when we

encounter people that are different from ourselves. For example, in the book, Each Kindness by

Jacqueline Woodson, this book is told from the perspective of Chloe, the main character who

does not show kindness to Maya since she is poor and very different from her on the outside.

This illustrated the initial hesitation that we have when someone is introduced to us that is

different than we are, and how sometimes they are treated poorly as we cannot relate to their past

and where they came from. This allowed us to see ourselves through Chloe, as we all have

experienced some time of prejudice or bias towards someone at some point in our lives, and we

could emphasize with the change of heart Chloe shows by the end of the story. At the end, Chloe

wishes that she would have shown kindness to Maya by smiling back, and playing with her

instead of letting her play on her own. At this point in the story, we could understand that these

differences between Chloe and Maya were insignificant, and that our initial opinion of someone

or the reactions that we have to people are not always correct. We need to take the time to

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understand and learn about them as a human being. This is a great example of how a book allows

us to foster an awareness of how we react to cultures and people that are different from us. For

example, in the story, Chloe did not even realize that her actions were making Maya feel bad

until it was too late and Maya moved. As readers, we can learn from this and understand that we

may not even be aware of how our actions against people from us can affect them, and it

illustrates how multicultural literature fosters this awareness in readers that is so important in our

society today.

Additionally, reading multicultural books allow us to be presented with a positive and

reassuring representation of our own cultural group (Tunnell, 2016, p. 200). While reading

pieces of global literature, we have the opportunity to learn about our own culture through the

point of view of someone usually from a different culture, and this provides us with valuable

insight on how our own culture is seen in the eyes of other people. For example, in the book

“Endangered” by Eliot Schrefer, Sophie, a young girl living in Congo, leaves with her father to

go to the United States of America so that she can attend school there. This example illustrates to

readers that their own American culture is known for a having a great educational system since

Sophie moves from Congo to attend school there. This also shows to us that our American

culture is seen as one as hope, promise, and freedom, as Sophie and her father were looking for a

place to live that had more to offer than Congo. This becomes the positive and reassuring

representation of our own cultural group that as readers we sometimes long for. Through

literature, and especially global literature, we have the opportunity to learn about ourselves more

by learning about other cultures as well. Often, it is hard to look at your own culture without

having a biased opinion of it since it is often the only one we know. These books therefore allow

us to receive this understanding and foster and appreciation for the culture we come from. Since

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we live in a culture that Sophie and her father seen as a place where education is excellent and

living is easier, this gives us the reassurance we desire from multicultural books. By reading

books like these, this will allow students to think outside the box and view their culture from a

fresh perspective, and this is a valuable tool that global literature gives our students as there are

not many opportunities for students to take a step back and see themselves through a different

lens. This allows us to become the well-rounded, knowledgeable human beings of society that

we desire to be and that we want our students to be in the future.

Reading global literature also introduces readers to the literary traditions of different

world cultures or cultural groups within specific nations (Tunnell, 2016, p. 200). Throughout this

project, we were exposed to many different cultures. For example, in the book “Endangered” by

Elliot Schrefer we were exposed to African culture as the setting was in Congo. In the book, “A

Million Shades of Gray” by Cynthia Kadohata, we were introduced to the area of South Vietnam

and what life was like there. Throughout this assignment, we were also introduced to cultural

groups that were specifically within our own nation, and in the books “Each Kindness” by

Jacqueline Woodson and “Red” by Jan De Kinder, both take place in the United States and

represent different cultural groups. In “Each Kindness” two different cultural groups are

represented, a higher class, and a lower class. The conflict is between the understanding of the

higher class to the lower class, which represents to readers how there can be cultural conflicts

within their own community. These are all important for readers to know as it gives valuable

insight on the types of people they may encounter and the backgrounds they come from. Once

we have an understanding of someone, kindness goes hand in hand. As we have learned this

semester, it is crucial that as teachers we model this excitement for literature for students, as this

attitude with be contagious to our students (Layne, 2009, p. 70). By reading these books and

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becoming passionate about global literature, we can inspire our students to become kinder, more

compassionate and understanding human beings.

How We Completed This Assignment:

There were many steps that we took to complete this project. First, we knew we needed

to find eight notable books that gave a variety of multicultural examples as we did not want to

have all of our books be about the same country or region. We started by looking online for these

books, specifically at the Children’s Literature & Reading Special Interest Group website. This

allowed us to see the different types of books that won this award so that we could accurately

pick two children’s book and two chapter books each. We also wanted to make sure we picked

books that were from multiple different years, and the layout of this website allowed us to be

very clear on which books we were picking and the date attached to them. After we both spent

some time looking through our books, we made our choices. Kaitlin read Mirror, Separate is

Never Equal, A Game for Swallows, and My Book of Life by Angel. Allison read Red, Each

Kindness, A Million Shades of Gray, and Endangered. After we read, we began researching

online about what the criteria was for a book to be named a NBGS. We learned that the criteria

that a book needs to meet in order to be considered a NBGS is extensive, as the book needed to

portray cultural accuracy and authenticity of characters in terms of physical characteristics,

intellectual abilities, problem solving capabilities, leadership and cooperative dimensions, social

and economic status. The book also needs to be rich in cultural details, honor and celebrate

diversity as well as common bonds in humanity, and provide in-depth treatment of cultural

issues. Additionally, a NBGS book needs to include characters of a minority group as well as

characters that are within or between two or more cultural groups that frequently interact while

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having an appealing format. This list is extensive and a lot to take on. However, to accomplish

the task of figuring out how our books fit into this criterion, we split the criteria into two

sections. The first section using the criteria that evaluates the books physical, social, and

economic status and the richness in cultural detail. We set the second section on the criteria that

evaluates how the book portrays members of the minority group and how appealing the format of

the book is. By breaking apart these lists, it made it easier for us to see how each of our books fit

in to the criteria of being a NBGS. Once this was done, to complete this assignment, we decided

to continue to break down the assignment. We split the sections of this assignment amongst each

other so that we each could participate evenly and accurately but also be able to put forth our

best work in the process. We also recognized that there were sections that needed both of our

input, so we made sure to complete these tasks accordingly. Our book, Children’s Literature,

Briefly, was a resource that we frequently used in this assignment as we were evaluating our

books. Chapter 15 gave us a comprehensive outlook on what makes global literature so

important as well as examined the characteristics of an excellent children’s book, and this give us

valuable insights that we could use in our paper. Throughout this assignment, we used Google

Docs so that we could still work together over break and manage our time wisely. At the end, we

read over each other’s work and checked it over using the NBGS project criteria sheet we were

provided. We feel that the strategies and processes we used to complete this assignment allowed

us to showcase our best work and truly understand how important global/multicultural literature

is to be implemented in the classroom.

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Our Definitions of Multicultural/Global Literature (& how they changed):

Kaitlin’s Definition: When I first began this project, I thought I had a pretty good grasp

on what multicultural and global literature was. I thought it was just books about a culture

(mostly race and ethnicity) other than your own. Three out of the four books I read (Mirror,

Separate is Never Equal and A Game for Swallows), fit my personal definition, but the book, My

Book of Life by Angel, did not fit this description at all. This book shows child prostitution and

does not tell the reader what race the child is. After this book, I realized that multicultural and

global literature can be anything that is not associated with your life or something that is

different from your personal life like, ethnicity, race, religion, language, history, traditions and

physical, mental and intellectual challenges or advantages.

Allison’s Definition: At the beginning of this assignment, I thought that

multicultural/global literature consisted of books that discussed the different cultures across the

globe that were different from yours. I pictured these books to be really black and white, and

come across as more of history lessons rather than books with an actual plot that included a

beginning, middle, and an end. However, I read the four books, Each Kindness, Red, A Million

Shades of Gray, and Endangered, which changed my definition of global literature drastically. I

found that reading these books, they are actual stories that had plot lines that included a climax,

tension, and had conflict. These books were not like history books at all, and I learned from

reading Each Kindness and Red that multicultural books can take place in your own nation and

allow you to learn about the different sub-cultures within your home nation. After reflecting on

the books that I read for this assignment, I define multicultural/global literature as literature that

introduces readers to the traditions, cultures, and people around the globe with the purpose of

educating and raising awareness to the ways of life of the people around us.

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Our Big 8 :

My Book of Life by Angel: Martine Leavitt:

This story is a story about child prostitution and child drug use. Angel is a 16 year old

girl whose mother just died so her family life is full of chaos. Her dad is not around much

because the grief of losing his wife and the mother to his children is unbearable. Angel has a bad

habit that led her down the road of destruction. Angel goes into stores and steals the display

shoes. She will steal one single shoe from the store. One day, a man named Call, catches Angel

stealing a shoe and calls her out on it. She is terrified because she does not want to get in trouble.

Call then tells Angel he won’t tell anyone if she goes to lunch with him, which Angel agrees to

because she does not want to get arrested again. Her and Call go on several more lunches until

one day, Call offers Angel “candy” that “flies you down / tips you inside out / dumps you upside

down / flies you through empty space / to the black hole in the middle of you / and you can’t stop

/ unless you want to vomit up whole planets.../. One day, Angel comes home and uses Call’s

candy at home with her brother there with her. When her father comes home, Angel is still high

on the candy. Her father is furious and kicks her out of the house and she is can only come home

when she gets her life together. Angel begins to live with Call. Call calls himself a businessman

when in reality he is just a pimp and a drug dealer. Call will give Angel all the candy she wants,

but she must bring home enough money every night. Angel had a good friend named Serena who

would watch out for Angel. But one day, Serena went into a john’s car and never returned. Angel

is now watched by Widow, who has been in the business so long she doesn’t remember her real

name. Angel continues to work for Call and loses track of time. One day, Call decides to take a

petition to the city council to make prostitution legal. Call knows that its a money making

business and once it is legal, then he’ll be able to pay taxes. To grow his business, he brings

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home another girl, named Melli, who is younger than Angel. When Call brings home Melli,

Angel becomes very protective over her because she doesn't want her to go through the same

stuff she has to go through. When Call brings the Melli home, Angel decides it is time for her to

get sober and no longer use drugs. One day, Angel decides it’s time to escape from Call and she

devises a plan. Call makes Angel sleep with a police officer. While the police officer and Angel

are having sex, she steals his tie pin to prove that he slept with her. Then, Angel and Melli go to

the police station to accuse the police officer of sleeping with her and to also finally escape from

Call’s rule. Melli is safe, but Angel is not, so she runs from the police station and runs to a

bookstore. In this book store, she is finally safe and free from Call.

This novel is a superb book written in verse form. The author does a great job of using

figurative language to depict Angel’s story and how her life has drastically changed since her

mother’s passing. I think a strength this book has is that it exploits child prostitution and child

trafficking. It brings an issue that does not like to be discussed, to light and shows how dirty it is

and how it takes away a child’s innocence. A weakness I think this book has is that because it

was written in verse form, it sounded like poetry sometimes. With the poetry, sometimes I have a

hard time trying to understand what the author was trying to get across and had to reread lines

multiple times to understand it.

Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez and her Family’s Fight for Desegregation by

Duncan Tonatiuh:

Separate is Never Equal is about the Mendez’s family fight for desegregation in public

schools in California. Sylvia’s family move to Westminster, California to own their own farm

and to get out of the crowded city of Santa Ana, California. When Sylvia’s Aunt Soledad goes to

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enroll her children, Sylvia and her two brothers in school, the secretary tells them that Sylvia’s

cousins can enroll in the Westminster school, but Sylvia and her brothers have to enroll in the

Mexican school.The Mexican school was not as good as the Westminster school. The Mexican

school was surrounded by a hot wire fence and a cow pasture. The Mexican school didn’t even

have a playground for the students to play on. This upsets Aunt Soledad so she goes home to tell

Sylvia’s dad about it. Sylvia’s dad, Mr. Mendez, assumes that it was just a misunderstanding,

and goes to the superintendent the next day and asks to enroll his children in Westminster

schools and receives the same answer. Not happy with with answer and wanting better

reasoning, he proceeds to ask people higher up the chain looking for a reason why his children

can’t be in the same school as all of the white children. Mr. Mendez does not find an answer and

learns about a lawyer, Mr. Marcus, who has fought other segregation cases and won. Mr.

Mendez hires him to fight his segregation case. Once they gain enough evidence of this

happening in other school districts doing the same thing in Orange County, Mr. Marcus files a

lawsuit. The trial lasted five days and Mr. Marcus brought many people to the stand;

superintendents of various schools, students of other Mexican schools and educational specialist.

When the superintendent of Garden Grove district, Mr. Kent was put on the stand, he admitted

that Mexican students were segregated from white students because white students are superior

to Mexican students not only in scholastics but also in their social behavior, personal hygiene

and economic outlook. A year later, the judge finally made his decision and ruled in favor of the

Mendez family, allowing all students to attend school no matter their race. The school board then

appealed the case so it was brought back to court where it was ruled in favor of the Mendez

family again. Later that year, Governor Earl Warren signed it into law that all children in

California were allowed to go to school together regardless of race, language or ethnicity. This

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allowed Sylvia to attended school with white students and also let her become friends with

children of all different races and ethnicities!

I think the biggest strength this book has is that this book looks at segregation from the

viewpoint of a different race. When most people hear the word “segregation” they think of the

south and the segregation of white people and African American people and rarely think of the

segregation of Mexicans and white people. I like that this book told the story of Mexican

segregation and the battle that the Mendez family fought to overcome this horrendous social

issue. A weakness that this book has is that it is a little wordy. For being a children’s book, there

is a lot of reading to do on each page. The wordiness of this book doesn’t necessarily take

anything away for them story, it just makes the book long.

Mirror by Jeannie Baker:

Mirror by Jeannie Baker is about how two boys and their families live in two drastically

different countries with separate lives, yet there is something that is always the same. This is a

wordless picture book and there is only a little bit of writing at the beginning and at the end of

the book and the writing is written in both Arabic and in English. One boy is from Morocco and

the other boy is from Australia. The story starts with the boys’ moms getting ready in the

morning and starting their daily routine. Then it shows both families morning routine; eating

breakfast as a family, the process of making breakfast and their modes of transportation. Both

families are traveling into their respective cities and both end up at their local store/market and

begin to make purchases. They both go to a different store/ market. The Australian boy’s family

decides to buy a rug and the Moroccan boy’s family is selling a rug. Both families come back

together to enjoy dinner together. After dinner the family has family time and sit around and talk

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to each other about their day and the boys show their families new things. The Australian boy

shows his family the drawing he made of them flying across the desert on their new carpet and

the Moroccan boy shows his family the globe on their computer.

The strength of this book is that it is a wordless picture book and the book layout. When

you open the story you have the Australian boy’s story on one side and the Moroccan boy’s story

on the other. You open each page simultaneously and watch each families day unfold. Having no

words makes the story more powerful. I think if this book were to have words, it would have

made the story too corny and predictable. Because it’s wordless, readers are able to make the

connections about different cultures on their own and develop their own thoughts and feelings

about the book and the book’s message. The weakness I think is what the author, Jeannie Baker,

states at the beginning of the book “ The lives of the two boys and their families look very

different from each other, and they are different.” With a story as rich as this, I think she should

have wrote something more along the lines of how two boys who have never met each other live

similar lives even though they live in different countries and speak different languages. This

book celebrates uniqueness of culture, but I think she should have acknowledge in the beginning

credits that humans, no matter where they live, are similar and we should be accepting to all.

A Game for Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return by Zeina Abirached:

This story is about a young girl and her family and how they survived a night in their

apartment in Lebanon in the 1980’s when their country was stricken with war. Zeina and her

brother are left home alone when their parents went across town to visit their grandmother. The

parents are unable to return home as quickly as they wanted because of the war, so many people

in the children’s apartment came to check on them. Zeina’s foyer in their apartment was the safe

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haven for all of the residents in the apartment building because it was the least likely to be

attacked because where it was positioned in the complex. Many different people from their

complex come and we are told some back stories of them and if they have decided to stay in their

country or to leave to somewhere safer. Some have decided to stay because this is their home,

but others will be moving because they don’t want to risk death. Later in the story, Zeina’s room

gets hit and that is when all the residents in the building realize it is time for everyone to

evacuate the building because their home is no longer safe from artillery.

This book was my least favorite book that I read for the entire project. The author jumped

around in this story frequently and I was confused about what was going on in the story the

whole time. It was confusing and hard to follow. Even after reading this book, I still don’t really

grasp the message or the story line. The characters are not well introduced either. If I were to

choose a strength this book has it would be it is written as a graphic novel so it is easy to read

and you can finish it quickly.

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson:

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson is a children’s picture book that examines that a

little kindness truly has an effect on the world. In the book, Chloe, the main character, is seated

next to a new African American girl, Maya, in her classroom. The students in the book are

elementary school students, but they immediately notice that Maya is a little different from them.

As soon as Maya walks in the classroom, the teacher introduces her and Maya gives the class a

soft smile. However, the only thing that Chloe and her classmates notice about the new student is

that Maya’s clothes look old, wrinkly, and dirty. Chloe and the other kids automatically think

this is weird since their clothes do not look that way. They conclude that there must be

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something wrong with Maya, and they do not want anything to do with her. To Chloe’s

disappointment, Maya is seated right next to her in class. When Maya sits down next to her for

the first time, she gives Chloe a kind smile, but Chloe looks away, frowns, and moves her stuff

over on her desk to be as far away from Maya as she possibly can be.

This continues on for days, as Chloe and her friends still refuse to interact and smile back

to Maya. Maya brings in toys she got for her birthday to share with the class at recess, but no one

wants to play with her, so Maya ends up playing by herself. Chloe and her friends comment that

Maya’s shoes look old and like someone had worn them out before her. This only adds to their

negative opinion of Maya, and they still will not interact with her in school.

One day, the teacher of the class does a lesson on kindness. To help students visualize the

power of kindness, the teacher drops and pebble into a bowl of water and has students observe

the ripples that this rock caused. The teacher then explained to the class that these ripple effects

were just like spreading kindness. Just a small gesture can mean the world to somebody, and

often kindness has a chain reaction, and she insists the teacher be kind students. Realizing what

she had done, Chloe wants more than anything to be able to be kind to Maya after this lesson.

She vows that the next time Maya comes in and sits down, she will smile back to her and play

with her at recess.

Unfortunately, Maya never came back to school. The reader is unsure of what happened,

but we can infer that it is due to the lack of kindness that she was shown while she was in this

school. Chloe regrets not being nice to Maya and wishes she had the opportunity to, but the

entire class learned that a small act of kindness is so important, and can truly change the world.

This book has many strengths and weaknesses attached to it. Each Kindness illustrates a

tough and comprehensive subject to students in a soft lens of a children’s picture book. While I

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personally enjoyed this book and realize the impact it might have, there is one criticism of this

book that I would make. I think having the ending lack in a real conclusion may be hard for kids

to follow. This is one weakness as young children may read literally and struggle to read

between the lines at the end that the author is forcing students to do. I also think that providing

an ending for Chloe to be kind to Maya and to see how this kindness changes both their lives

would be beneficial for students to see. We felt that with the students being young, having an

ending that was clear and well-written would be the one element that we would add to the book

and what the book is lacking in currently.

The strength of this book is that the illustrations are so in-depth that they reinforce the

text exceptionally. Throughout the book, the character’s facial expression help to move the story

forward and tell the story on their own. For example, Maya frequently has a soft expression on

her face with her smile. As Maya gets close to Chloe, you can see Chloe’s facial expression

change from happy to mad, and this helps the reader truly visualize how unkind the students

were being to Maya. Without this complex illustrations, the book would be drastically different

as we would have to infer how the treatment of Maya was, instead we have the opportunity to

picture the story as the author intended, and that is something very powerful in this book.

Red by Jan De Kinder:

Red by Jan De Kinder, is a children’s picture book that examines the effects bullying has

on people. In this book, people are forced to make decisions about whether or not they are going

to bully someone, as well as if they are going to stand up against bullying or let it happen. The

story is told from the point of view of a young girl. This young girl frequently makes fun of

Tommy, another young boy in her class, because he blushes often and easily. The girl and her

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friends all laugh at Tommy, and this only makes Tommy cheeks grow even more red.

Another student, Paul, enjoys picking on Tommy for his red cheeks more than anyone

else it seems. He observes the young girl picking on Tommy in the beginning, and seems to take

it too far. The young girl starts to feel guilty since she feels she started this. Throughout the

course of this story, we can see Tommy getting sadder and sadder by the facial expressions he

shows as the story continues forward.

One day, the students’ teacher tries to uncover who is behind all of the bullying.

However, the young girl is afraid to point out that Paul is the one bullying Tommy as she is

afraid of him too. Although, as the bullying intensifies, we see the young girl is faced with a

decision about standing up for Tommy or not. However, the young girl makes the decision to

stand up for Tommy, call out Paul, and put an end to the bullying. At the end, all of the other

kids stand behind the young girl against bullying showing just how important one act of kindness

can be in someone’s life.

This book has many strengths. One strength in particular is the author’s use of

color in this story. As the name implies, red is frequently used in this book, but it is used beyond

its literal color name. The red draws the reader's attention, and also allows the reader to feel the

anger and shame inside of Tommy and the young girl when the bullying intensifies. Red is a

strong color, and the use of color in this book really brings the book to life and carries emotion

along with it. Another strength of this book is that author’s use of figurative language. For

example, when the young girl is intimidated to stand up to the boy, she says “His tongue is as

sharp as a knife and his fist is as hard as a brick” (unpaged.) These similes allow the reader to

really picture Paul in their minds since he is only illustrated briefly in the book. This also draws

tension in the book, another clear strength of this book. When the young girl is deciding whether

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or not she should stand up for Tommy, tension is created and the reader wants to keep turning

the pages to see what happens next.

One criticism and weakness of this book is that it is only told from the point of view of

the young girl. I think it would be useful for students if we could see how Tommy was affected

by the bullying, and what he thought when his fellow classmates finally stood up for him. This

would add depth and detail to the book, as well as highlight the theme of the book, that one

simple act of kindness can go a long way and affect many people positively.

Endangered by Elliot Schrefer

Endangered by Elliot Schrefer is an interesting story about a girl named Sophie and her

life in Congo. When Sophie’s father gets a job in Florida State, this causes a separation between

Sophie and her mother. Sophie’s mother refuses to go to the United States with them as she has

dedicated her life to creating a safe place for the bonobos of Congo. Since her father wants to go

to the United States, the two parents end up divorcing, and Sophie goes to the United States with

her father and is enrolled in school.

At the age of fourteen, Sophie returns to Congo and reunites with her mother. Still caring

for bonobos, Sophie sees a man on the street that has a young bonobo with him. However, this

bonobo is thin and looks extremely unhealthy as if it was not getting the proper nutrition and

care that it really needed. Going against her mother's rules, Sophie purchases the bonobo from

the man and the adventure truly starts here. They grow attached to each other as Sophie nurses

the bonobo to health, and they spend every waking moment together. Sophie’s mother is leaving

to go free some of the bonobos that she has rescued before into the wild where they belong. This

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is when war breaks out in Congo, leaving Sophie alone with Otto, her bonobo, and uncertainty

about what she is going to do next.

Next in the book, military soldiers come in and murder many of the people working at the

bonobo sanctuary. Sophie hides in the back, but it is at this moment that Sophie knows that she is

going to have to take Otto and leave to keep alive. Sophie manages to escape and takes Otto with

her, and they head to a small city up north. Throughout their trip, Otto and Sophie have their fair

share of surprises. In a small village, she finds her mother is sick with malaria, and they spend

weeks with her to nurse her back to health. Sophie battles keeping Otto safe this whole time.

Later on, the two find a nice women who lets them come and eat food and rest up until

they can go back to Congo to see if there is any destruction to their bonobo sanctuary and see if

any of them survived. When they arrive back at the sanctuary, they discover that all of the

bonobos are gone, but everything seems relatively intact. To their amazement, the bonobos are

actually safe and living on the President’s property, safe as can be. Sophie then goes back to

school in Congo, graduates, and goes to college. Sophie hopes to help the Congo economy one

day, and continues to love and care for Otto her entire life.

I enjoyed reading this book and found that there were many strengths and weaknesses

associated with this book. The author uses descriptive language throughout the book that truly

make you feel like you are on the adventure with them as well. You can feel their fatigue,

hunger, thirst, and all of the events in the story like you lived them personally. The author does a

great job using words that create a mental picture. This book would best be described as an

adventure book and is definitely action packed, and the author does a great job allowing you to

have this mental image in your mind. One weakness of this book is that it may be scary or sad

for young readers to come across. The author does not downplay any of the war scenes of the sad

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scenes, and I worry that this may be hard for young readers to hear. Especially since there are

animals involved in the book, children may be emotional to the thought of animals potentially

getting killed, and sadden them more than it is worth. However, for an older audience, I think

this would come across as the compelling, captivating, book that it really is.

A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata:

A Million Shades of Gray by Cynthia Kadohata takes place in South Vietnam, just as the

war is tearing the country apart. The main character, a 13 year old boy named Y’Tin, has more

important things he is thinking about while the war is taking place in Vietnam. Y’Tin’s father

works for the US Special forces, which leaves Y’Tin more involved in the war then he would

like. Y’Tin has a passion for elephants, and dreams to be an elephant handler one day in which

he trains and spends all day working with elephants. This is seen right in the beginning as the

book as Y’Tin is observing an elephant dragging logs for a local clan, and Y’Tin is fascinated

watching. Additionally, due to his father being in the special forces and traveling with him,

Y’Tin has learned an exceptional amount about the jungle and the animals in it already, so Y’Tin

already shows the signs that he would be a great elephant handler.

Y’Tin has his own pet elephant, Lady, whom he loves dearly and spends this wartime

trying to not become separated from her. While war was increasingly prevalent in Vietnam,

Y’Tin’s village has managed to remain untouched until now. When the US forces withdraw from

the war, his town is overrun with North Vietnamese soldiers, and Y’Tin is forced to escape into

the jungle for his life. They later find out that the village where they were living was completely

destroyed, leaving Y’Tin, a usually hopeful person, feeling like he has nothing left. However,

Y’Tin was able to escape with Lady, and this only strengthens their bond. Y’Tin and his village

20
are now forced to the jungle, where Y’Tin becomes more bitter and untrusting of people due to

the large impact the war has had on their family. In the end of the book, Y’Tin travels to a

refugee camp to save a friend, and travels back to be with Lady and her daughter. The book hints

that Y’Tin has plans to go off to Thailand, but the book ended shortly after this was mentioned.

Overall, this book had many strengths that made me understand why this book has been

one that has received so many honors over the course of the years. First, I think the author did a

great job creating tension and climax as the impending war and Y’Tin’s escape all make the

reader feel anxious along with Y’Tin and Lady. The author does a great job also establishing the

characters, as we learn a lot of details about Y’Tin in the beginning of the book that helps us

truly connect to him on a more personal level. I thought that his relationship with his elephant

was touching, and I enjoyed that this book had a character with a unique interest in Vietnam.

One weakness or criticism I have of this book is that it ends rather abruptly. After Y’Tin

saves his friend and we hear he wants to go to Thailand, we just see him sitting in the jungle with

Lady, and there really is not much going on. I think the author could have expanded this ending a

little more so that the reader had a clear understanding of where Lady and Y’Tin were off to next

and when. While this book is exceptional, I would consider adding more depth to the ending to

really tie it all together.

NBGS Criteria:

There are two parts of the NBGS criteria. The first part of the criteria, the book must meet

one or more of these criterion from the list below to be considered. The first part being:

● Portray cultural accuracy and authenticity of characters in terms of

○ Physical characteristics

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 ○ Intellectual abilities and problem solving capabilities

○ Leadership and cooperative dimensions

○ Social and economic status

This is shown in the story My Book of Life by Angel. Angel, is a 16 year old prostitute. In

the story we find out that Angel has no tattoos, which makes sense because she is only 16, she

also looks young enough to say she’s 13. Her problem solving at times is weak, mostly because

she’s on Call’s candy so she doesn’t always think straight or sensible; she solves problems to the

best of her ability just so she can survive. Her economic and social status is what really portrays

the cultural accuracy of being a child prostitute. In Angel’s situation, her mother just died and

her home life was unstable. She got involved with drugs which caused her to get kicked out of

her home. Her only source of income is what she gets from sleeping with men, but even then,

that money goes straight to her pimp.

● Be rich in cultural details

A Million Shades of Gray is a great example of a book that is rich in cultural details.

While there were other books that we read that fell into this category as well, this book was the

true winner of this NBGS criteria. Throughout the book, the author does a great job describing

what life was truly like in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. The area is described as “war torn”

and the men are away fighting in the war. Y’Tin is unique for this country since he wants to

become a elephant trainer and not go into the military. The book also describes the destruction of

Y’Tin’s village by the Viet Cong forces in great detail, and the reader comes away with an

accurate glimpse of the destruction this war caused on the people of Vietnam. A Million Shades

of Gray also does a great job honoring and celebrating diversity and the common bonds in

humanity. This is seen as Y’Tin is accepted for wanting to pursue a life very different than the

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other Vietnamese boys around him. The author is honoring diversity and the culture that Y’Tin is

immersed in. I also see how the author celebrates the common bonds in humanity through

Y’Tin’s relationship with his pet elephant, Lady. The author shows just how important these

relationships were and that the bond between animal and man can be extremely strong. We see in

this book that sometimes Lady is Y’Tin’s only hope, and this illustrates this common bond and

its importance to the story.

● Honor and celebrate diversity as well as common bonds in humanity

Endangered also does a great job illustrating the celebration of the common bonds in

humanity and is another book that is rich in cultural details. In the book, the danger of living in a

place like Congo during this time is evident, as the author describes the place as being war-torn

with bullets flying around constantly. Since Sophie moves away to be with her father, we see the

issues of the Dominican Republic of Congo come to life as the issues were severe enough to

send her thousands of miles away from school. While the author covers so many details in this

book, the culture of Congo is definitely an underlying theme that causes all of the issues that

Sophie faces. Again, we see in this book the celebration of the common bonds of humanity as

Sophie grow an attachment to Otto, a bonobo from her hometown. This again illustrates the

importance of the animal-human bond and how important it can be. Additionally, we see this

idea illustrated again as Sophie risks her life for Otto, and to be reunited with her mom when

they are seperated when their village is invaded. This book showed many NBGS criteria and met

each one, but these two stick out the most.

● Provide in-depth treatment of cultural issues

Separate is Never Equal does a great job discussing cultural issues in depth but also in a

way so all age levels would be able to understand the hardships that Sylvia Mendez’s family and

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other Mexican families faced in California in the 1940’s. Segregation in public schools was very

common in California school districts. There were white schools and Mexican schools. The

Mexican schools were nowhere close the same level of distinction that the white schools were.

Sylvia’s school was surrounded by a cow pasture that had hot wire fence to keep the cows in,

had no playground equipment and no cafeteria, so students had to eat outside. The white schools

had all this and more and would not allow Mexican children in their schools. So, Sylvia’s family

hired a lawyer to fight this injustice and won the case. After they won the case, the governor of

California made it a law that all students were allowed to go to school together regardless of

race, language or ethnicity.

● Include characters within a cultural group or between two or more cultural groups who

interact substantively and authentically

Each Kindness by Jacqueline Woodson, does a great job including characters that

represent two different cultural groups and how they interact to each other in result of these

differences. This is seen through Chloe, the narrator and main character of this story who

represents an upper-class, wealthy culture that she comes from. Chloe has a negative attitude

towards Maya, a black, lower-class girl that looks completely different from her. Maya

frequently tries to interact with Chloe despite the fact that Chloe refuses to until she has the

realization about kindness in the end. This is a phenomenal example of having two characters

from different cultures interact in one group as Chloe and Maya are in the same class and even

sit next to each other. There interactions are not only authentic but they are also believable, as

many of us can relate to having a negative stereotype towards somebody at some point in our

lives.

● Include members of a “minority” group for a purpose other than filling a “quota”

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 Additionally, Each Kindness does a great job illustrating the NGBS criteria of including

members of a “minority” group for a set purpose. This is seen when the author chooses to

include Maya as the one being bullied in the book and she is African American. This

implementation of a minority group allows us as readers to truly see what global literature is

trying to teach us: to have an awareness and understanding of people who are different from us,

and be cognizant of how we are treating them. Having Maya be a poor, African American in the

United States and the treatment of Chloe to Maya fulfilled this criterion for the NBGS award as

the purpose of reading this piece of global literature was never more clear than it was after

reading this book.

In the second part of the NBGS criteria, the book must obtain all following criterion in order to

be considered a NBGS book:

● Invite reflection, critical analysis and response

Mirror is a phenomenal example of allowing students to make their own reflections,

analysis and response. Mirror is a wordless picture book that shows the similarities and

differences between two cultures. The author made a great choice of choosing to make it a

wordless picture book because it allows readers to make their own inferences on the book and

draw their own conclusions on what they think the author is trying to portray. This book would

be a great discussion tool because each reader is going to have their own opinion on what they

think the author was trying to do with this book.

● Demonstrate unique language or style

In the story Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation,

the author, Tonatiuh integrates Spanish and English into the story’s dialogue. I loved this

25
because it added emotion to the story and it was powerful to read. It would have been a

disservice to the family’s story not to have Spanish in the the book.

● Have an appealing format and be of enduring quality

A Game For Swallows: To Die, To Leave, To Return is a graphic novel. Graphic novels

catches students’ eyes and make it fun for them to read because it isn’t a normal chapter book

nor is it a normal picture book. The graphics in the story help better tell the story and elaborate

what the author is trying to get across. A graphic novel format keeps students engaged in what

they are reading because they usually don’t have many words and are easy to follow along

because the pictures are telling a large majority of the story as well. This book is also high in

quality and discusses the troubles a family was having in Lebanon in the 1980’s when the

country was war stricken. I knew nothing about Lebanon in the 1980’s and this book told the

history of Lebanon in a way where I was able to understand some of the hardships the country

and families faced during that time.

● Meet generally-accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which they are written

Red is a great example of a NBGS book that meet the generally-accepted criteria of

quality for the genre in which they were written in. Red is a realistic fiction picture book and this

is evident by just the first few pages. As we have learned in class, realistic fiction is a story or

event that did not happen but could have happened (Tunnell, 2016, p. 200). Red does just this as

the story of Tommy getting bullied may not have happened in this exact way that the book

portrays, but has definitely happened to someone before. This book raises awareness to bullying

and the importance of standing up for someone and speaking out if they have been bullied.

Additionally, this book also happens in the present and is set like this is taking place all as you

are reading it. This is another key quality of realistic fiction that this book does a great job

26
illustrating. Since this book is a picture book and we have examined so many of them over the

course of the semester, I can see how this book is popular among children. The extended use of

color (besides just the title) grab the reader’s attention and this is a color that is exciting to

children. Additionally, the author uses illustrations that reinforce the text, another key

characteristic of a children’s picture book and another reason that illustrates how this book was a

quality book that deserved to win a NBGS award on so many levels.

Chapter 15:

In our Children’s Literature Briefly book, chapter 15 discusses the need of exposing

children to multicultural literature and explains how international literature helps students gain

an appreciation and understanding of global cultures. This chapter is the foundation to our entire

project and explains why multicultural literature is essential to a child’s life. To begin,

multicultural literature includes not only different ethnicities and people of color, but also people

with different religions than our own, people with disabilities, and people with a high intellect.

When we expose children to multicultural literature, we are teaching against xenophobia; the fear

of foreigners. Reading literature to students about cultures and lives different from their own,

teaches students that even though there are people who look different than them, speak a

different language than them or believe in something different than them, does not mean they

should be fearful of them, because they are still a human being, just like them. Multicultural

literature disbands and disproves stereotypes as well. When students read about cultures around

the world, they learn other cultures traditions, beliefs and history. This allows children to gain an

appreciation for not only their own culture, but an appreciation of uniqueness throughout

cultures.

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Our Winner:

We chose Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for

Desegregation by Duncan Tonatiuh as our winner. We chose this book to be our winner because

it is the perfect example of a multicultural book and would be a perfect book to use in a

classroom. We both felt like this book would be a good awakening for all races of students.

White students will be able to see that sometimes other white people did not treat Mexicans

nicely and that was really wrong of them to do. Mexican students will be able to see that other

people of their same ethnicity worked hard so that future Mexican students will be guaranteed a

good education with other races and ethnicities. African American students will also be able to

see that they were not the only ones who were discriminated against because of their race and

will be able to empathize with Mexican students. This book will allow students to come together

are realize that they are all humans who deserve the same basic rights. This story is based on a

true story and has great information about this time period, but is written as a picture book which

makes it more appealing to students. This is because students are not just reading information out

of a boring textbook; they are learning about a new content area through a picture book with

well-drawn and detailed pictures.

As I have stated before, the biggest strength this book has is that this book looks at

segregation from the viewpoint of a different race. When most people hear the word

“segregation” they think of the south and the segregation of white people and African American

people and rarely think of the segregation of Mexicans and white people. I like that this book

told the story of Mexican segregation and the battle that the Mendez family fought to overcome

this horrendous social issue. Another strength is the illustrations in the story. The illustrations are

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detailed and strengthen the book’s story. There’s one part in the book, when the secretary tells

Sylvia’s Aunt Soledad, that her two daughters can enroll at the Westminster School, but Sylvia

and her brothers may not. In this illustration, Sylvia and her two cousins are on the page. Sylvia’s

cousins drawn to look like a lighter complexion and Sylvia has darker skin and hari than her

cousins. In the picture, Sylvia is looking down at her skin confused why it matters that she is a

darker complexion than her cousins. This was such a well written book, it was difficult finding a

weakness for it. The only possible weakness we could think of is that this book has is that this

book is a little wordy. For being a children’s book, there is a lot of reading to do on each page.

The wordiness of this book doesn’t necessarily take anything away for them story, it just makes

the book long.

This book encompasses what multicultural literature should look like. Children’s

Literature Briefly gives three different criteria when it comes to judging multicultural literature:

1. Racial or Cultural stereotyping must be avoided

2. Cultural details need to be represented accurately in literature

3. Cultural Authenticity; meaning that those within a culture feel that a book a has

accurately and honestly reflected their experiences and viewpoints.

For the first criterion that Children’s Literature Briefly gives, “Racial or Cultural

stereotyping must be avoided”, the author does not avoid it, rather he exploits it to show the

reader how terrible the segregation of the schools was. The story explains that schools were

segregated because of racial and cultural stereotypes. When the case went to trial, one of the

superintendents said that the reasons schools were segregated was because white students were

superior to their Mexicans peers in regards to personal hygiene, scholastics, economic outlook

29
and clothing. This is an example of the author exploiting and explaining to the readers that it is

not okay for people to have these thoughts about other races.

The next criterion “cultural details need to be represented accurately in literature”, is

displayed perfectly in this book. The book is based on a real family’s struggle that they had to

face. In the author’s note, Tonatiuh explains that the family did actual go to court and that there

was a real case called “Mendez v. Westminster School District”. The author did a beautiful job

of taking what happened and putting in a children’s book so more kids would be aware of the

challenges Mexican students faced pre Mendez v. Westminster School District.

The last criterion we have a hard time judging. Both Allison and myself are white

females so we are not a part of the Mexican culture. But, after reading the “about the text”

section in the back of the book, we both believe that this book shows culture authenticity. In the

“About the Text” section, Tonatiuh states “ The dialogue in the trial scene comes directly from

court transcripts. I shortened and edited it for clarity and pacing. The dialogue in the rest of the

book is inspired by conversations I had with Sylvia Mendez in October 2012 and April 2013.”

We believe that because Tonatiuh took the dialogue from the source, the cultural authenticity is

good.

Critique of Literary Elements:

There are multiple different literary elements. To master fiction, you need to not only

have all of these elements but be able to use them well. The elements that we will be discussing

are writing style, characterization, plot, theme, and voice. We will be discussing how Separate is

Never Equal utilizes each of these literary elements.

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 First, writing style meaning how the author uses language throughout the book to tell the

story. In the book, the Tonatiuh uses English and Spanish throughout the story. When you read

the Spanish sentences, it's so powerful because you can hear the emotion in the character’s voice

when they say it. Tonatiluh’s dialogue flows well and the story is easy to follow. He uses words

that all age levels can understand and the vocabulary is not difficult either. He wrote this book

this way so it could be enjoyed by all ages. The next literary element is characterization.

Characterization is making sure that your characters could actually be real people. Tonatiuh had

it pretty easy when it came to characters in this story because his book is based on a true story

and uses facts and people from the real life event in his story. The characters are realistic and

were involved either before during or after the Mendez v. Westminster School District case. Plot

is what happens to the characters. The plot is evident from the beginning of the book. This story

is about how the Mendez family fought for the rights of not only their children, but also children

of other ethnicities and races to ensure that schools would not be segregated because of a

student’s race, language or ethnicity in the state of California. Theme is the story’s main idea.

The main idea of this story is civil rights and equality. At the beginning of the story we are told

that Mexican students are not allowed to go to the white school. The Mexican school is

surrounded by cows, hot wire and flies, no cafeteria nor playground equipment. Sylvia’s Dad,

Gonzalo Mendez, wanted more for his children and other Mexican children so he hired a lawyer

to fight for their right to send their kids to the white school and to no longer have segregated

schools. The last element is voice. Voice is like the mood and tone of the book; how the book is

portrayed and how it comes across. The voice of this book does not put blame on anyone, it just

tells a story and allows the reader make their own connections and realizations about the story.

31
The story is told in a way were it just wants the facts to be portrayed and be told from the

Mendez’s family point of view.

Our Two Honor Books:

While Separate is Never Equal: Sylvia Mendez & Her Family’s Fight for Desegregation

by Duncan Tonatiuh was our winner, two books that were considered for our honor awards were

Each Kindness and Endangered. While we enjoyed all of the books that we read, we felt that

these books deserved to be on our NBGS honors list for their excellent example of a quality

global/multicultural literature piece for students.

Each Kindness displayed an excellence in many of the NBGS criteria as well as hit every

mark for what Children’s Literature, Briefly, describes a quality piece of global/multicultural

literature should represent. First, Children’s Literature Briefly emphasizes that racial and cultural

stereotyping should be avoided within this books. We see this done exceptionally in Each

Kindness as Maya is an African American girl who they are judging. However, the author never

adds any text that would lead students to conclude that she is being judged due to her race.

Instead, she is being judged due to her clothing and the fact that she is a stranger to the other

children in the classroom and most children do not adapt well to new people. The author does not

add any racial stereotypes in the book that would give a “reason” for her to be bullied based on

race. Despite not having an cultural bias represented, the details that an author gives about a

culture need to be accurate. This is also seen in the book as the author is portraying the lower-

class, and often it was true that they would not be wearing the newest or nicest looking clothes.

Often, families would give their children clothing that belonged to the child’s siblings so,

Chloe’s comment about how Maya’s shoes “looked like someone else had worn them

32
previously” was probably true. Through these images and text associated with them in the book,

we come away learning about this culture more and how they must have been affected when they

were not given the kindness that they deserved, as illustrated in this story.

As we stated before, one part of the NGBS criteria is to have books that include

characters within a cultural group or between two or more cultural groups who interact

substantively and authentically as well as includes members of a “minority” group for a purpose

other than filling a “quota.” Each Kindness does a phenomenal job with this criteria, as the

relationship between Chloe and Maya illustrate these cultural differences coming head-to-head in

one community. Their interactions are authentic and believable, and the reader comes away with

an understanding of the reactions people have to cultures that are different from their own.

Again, this shows the power of this book to foster an awareness to a particular culture, a crucial

element of multicultural literature, and another aspect that illustrates that this book meets NBGS

criteria excellently and deserves a spot on the NBGS list.

Each Kindness will definitely appeal to students as bullying and kindness are common

topics of elementary school, and it is something that they will be able to relate to. These are also

two subjects that cannot be talked about enough in the classroom to students. This was also a

subject that we were passionate about, so we know we could model this behavior to our students

so that they really understand the importance of being kind as it was something we would display

to them (Layne, 2009, p. 70). The literary elements that are prevalent in this book are a clear

establishment of the theme, setting, and mood of the book. The message about kindness is clear

from the beginning as the author uses illustrations that reinforce the text that show the facial

expressions of each student when they see Maya. These pictures speak a thousand words by

themselves, but reinforce the text phenomenally. If I could give a critique of this book, it would

33
be to add to the conclusion of the book so that readers can see how the kindness impacted both

Chloe and Maya’s lives. I think having the ending unresolved with Chloe never getting the

chance to be kind to Maya is a little harsh, and since it is intended for a young audience, I feel

students would benefit more from having this book read with a proper conclusion at the end.

However, that critique does not shadow all of the excellent literary elements that are represented

in this book.

From the author’s extensive use of illustrations that reinforce the text and using the

literary elements of theme, setting, etc. to establish the purpose of the book early on, to the way it

fosters an awareness for a culture without stereotyping but rather celebrating it, clearly shows

how this book deserves a placement on the NBGS list. Global literature is meant to inspire,

educate, and foster an appreciation from cultures all around the globe, and this book hits the

criteria on every level. While all of our books were good and we could see how this book could

deserve to be our winner, we feed confident in the choice we made on having Each Kindness be

one of our NGBS honor books this year.

Our second NBGS honor book we chose was Endangered. Throughout this book, we

were hooked and found it was difficult to put the book down. While this was a fiction book, there

still was an immense amount of details in the text that made us learn about the dynamics of life

in the Dominican Republic of Congo and what Sophie had to go through as a young girl in

Congo. This book meets the criteria of an NBGS book and deserves to be on a list due to its

unique way of illustrating a culture that still allows for education, but also serves an interesting

plot line to the reader.

To begin, as we stated before Children’s Literature Briefly gives many ideas about what

types of elements a book should include that would qualify the book as a piece of quality global

34
literature. One of these elements is that the specific cultural details in the book need to be

accurate. In short, the way the author is painting a culture needs to be factual and authentic so

that the reader can come away with new knowledge about a culture that they did not know much

about before reading the book. This is illustrated in Endangered as we see how an armed

revolution came into this country and devastated everything in its path. In the book, we see how

Sophie is affected by this as she is forced to become separated from her mother and escapes from

her village to prevent getting killed. If you research this for accuracy, you will find that this was

the Congo Crisis that did happen in Congo during the mid-20th century, devastating the area.

This illustrates how the author is presenting authentic details about a culture and taking it a step

further by showing how people were affected by this event through her main character, Sophie.

More specifically, the NBGS criteria is lengthy, and while Endangered does a great job

illustrating each one, the two that this book really hit the mark on was illustrating a book that is

rich in cultural details as well as honors and celebrates diversity and the common bonds in

humanity. As we said before, we see the rich cultural details through the author’s detailed

portrayal of the invasion of Congo and the destruction to people's property and lives that really

illustrates what life was like in Congo during this time. Additionally, this book celebrates the

importance of the bonds in humanity through the bond between Sophie and Otto, as well as the

bond between Sophie and her mother. Sophie’s relationship with Otto illustrates how important

bonds between animals and humans can be, and the power this relationship had is well stated

throughout the book. Then, Sophie never gives up on the process of finding her mother after

being seperated due to the invasion. This shows how tight families in Congo were, and how they

viewed family as a high value and importance in their lives. All of these celebrations of

humanity were well thought out in this book and accurately stated to the reader.

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 There were many literary elements that the book illustrated that made it a quality

children’s book. To name a few, The author did a great job creating tension, and having a

climax. When Sophie is forced to escape on her own the reader feels anxious right along with

her, and the climax is shown when Sophie and Otto managed to escape, but now are stuck alone

in a jungle. All of these elements grab the reader’s attention and make it a memorable book for

young students to read. One critique of this book is that it might not be a book for young readers,

but more likely for young adults. I worry that the dark scenes of the invasion and the possibility

of animals being harmed may be two tough subjects for young students to digest. I would

suggest having more than one version, so that young students can still learn about this book but

not have to experience all of the dark details that this book portrays. For older grades, there is no

doubt that this book would be memorable and exciting for them to read.

From the literary books this book exhibits to the way this book hits the criteria of

the NBGS, there was no doubt in our minds that this book deserved to be on the NBGS shelves.

Students will be captivated by this book due to the author’s ability to write text that includes the

crucial literary elements and this will make them become more knowledgeable about the culture

of Congo. As we said before, global literature should to educate, inspire, and foster an

appreciation from cultures around the world. Endangered and Each Kindness did all three of

these things with excellence, and we both came away feeling like we understood a culture and

others better than before, and that is a valuable lesson to receive from reading always.

Conclusion:

This assignment allowed us to reflect on this past semester and classes we have

previously taken. After a discussion, we feel that this assignment taught us about what the

36
purpose of global literature is, as well as showed us how these books could positively impact our

students in the future. Our goal is to become well-rounded, knowledgeable human beings of

society, and global literature has the power to do this for everyone, even young students reading

picture books. At first we were both unsure of what global literature was as we both thought they

were basically glorified history books. Finding out what global literature really consisted of was

an adventure, and as we look back we know that we have learned that global literature inspires,

educates and fosters an awareness and appreciation for cultures that can sometimes go

unmentioned. These were lessons we felt we would take with us into our own classrooms one

day as future teachers.

In addition, we know that we still have a lot to learn about the world of

global/multicultural literature. We agreed that we still needed to learn how to help our students

not just read these books, but also get to the point where they have this appreciation for a culture

and people that are different from themselves. We want our students to be passionate and kind

human beings, and we would want to know how to develop the best plan for using these books to

change our students’ ideas of cultures and not just use it as a book for our students to read to pass

time. In short, we need to learn how to introduce, hook, and create a discussion in our classroom

about the ideas and content in these books accurately.

If we could do this assignment again, there are a few things we would change. First, we

would choose to go to the library to pick out books together so that we knew we were getting

books that explored a vast number of ideas and topics. We wanted to learn about many different

cultures through this assignment, and if we could go back we would ensure this was the case by

picking books out together. Additionally, if we could do this assignment again, we would choose

to start reading pieces of global literature earlier so that we had a background on what these

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books consisted of before starting our project. While the books wouldn’t have to be long, it

would be nice to have an idea of what the genre consists of before diving into eight different

books and many different topics.

As we reflected on this assignment, we found that there were ways in which we could tie

this assignment to coursework for this course and for a previous one. We see how this

assignment ties into our Orbis Pictus project as it asked us to evaluate, analyze, and critique a

book and the literary elements attached to it. We have learned about the vital role that literary

elements play in a book, and the skills we used during the Orbis Pictus project came back into

play as we thought about those same elements and critiques as we completed this assignment.

We also thought it linked to the visual literacy project, as the books all gave us an underlying

mental picture that we viewed the story as. This reminded us of having to create one image that

we felt best represented the book in our visual literacy project, and having pulled out these

elements into one cohesive picture before helped us to pull the meaning out of these books more

accurately. Upon further reflection, we found that this assignment related to another course in the

College of Education, which was Teaching and Learning 339, Communicating in Diverse

Classrooms. Throughout this class, we had guest speakers and read stories about the cultural

aspects of different cultures, and the implications these had for teachers. This relates to this

assignment as in both classes, we learned about different cultures and had to evaluate how we

would use this information in our classroom. It taught us to be aware of the negative

consequences of stereotyping, as well as gave us the ability to have an understanding of the types

of events a student may have gone through before they entered our classroom. Both of these

experiences taught of valuable lessons that we will not forget. We have a new appreciation for

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the power of global literature, and we truly cannot wait to introduce these books to our future

students someday.

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 Bibliography

Abirached, Z., & Gauvin, E. (2012). A game for swallows: To die, to leave, to return.

Minneapolis: Graphic Universe.

Baker, J. (2010). Mirror. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Kadohata, C. (2010). A million shades of gray. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Kinder, J. (2015). Red. Grand Rapids, MI:. Eerdmans Books for Young Readers.

Layne, S. (2009) Igniting a passion for reading. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.

Leavitt, M. (2012). My book of life by Angel. New York: Margaret Ferguson Books.

Schrefer, E. (2012). Endangered. New York, NY: Scholastic Press.

Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.

Tunnel, M.O., Jacobs, J.S., Young, T.A., & Bryan, G. (2016). Children’s literature, briefly.

Upper

Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Woodson, J. (2012). Each kindness. New York, NY: Penguin Random House.

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