Emma Ludwicki

Caroline Merrick
Hannah Bailey
Bridgett Horrocks
Diversity Text Set
Theme:​ Dual Language books for English Language Learners

Title: ​Jambo Means Hello- Swahili Alphabet Book.

APA Citation:
Feelings, M. & Feelings T. (1974). ​Jambo means hello- Swahili alphabet book. ​New York, NY:
Dial Books for Young Readers.
Checklist:
● The story:

- is interesting to children.
+ offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
- includes a rich, thick plot.
- includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and interests.
- includes realistic, convincing characters.

● The illustrations:

+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.

+ correspond to the text.
- hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
+ enhance and add to the story.

● Cultural considerations:

- Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.

- Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
- The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
+ The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral traditions.
- The author and/or illustrator are a part of the group represented.
+ “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
Jambo Means Hello ​is an alphabet book that introduces words in Swahili along with African
culture. It goes through every letter of the English alphabet and matches a common Swahili term
to it. It them defines the term and its significance in African culture and provides an illustration
to help readers envision the setting where the term would be used. The book appears to be
interesting to children and provides a lot for them to question or consider. However, it is lacking
a rich plot with a problem and resolution. The book would very easily become boring to children
as it gets repetitive and is very factual. The illustrations seem to be accurate as they correspond
and enhance the text. Culturally, the book seems to present a one-sided African culture and
oversimplifies the complexities of it. The author is not a part of the culture and characters do not
represent a variety of backgrounds and diversity within the culture. If I were to use this book in
my classroom, I would use it go begin discussion on African culture or to include an ELL student
that speaks this language in the class. I would not be afraid to critique this book to my students or
to allow students of this culture to critique the book themselves. A follow up activity could be to
have students create alphabet books of other cultures. Hopefully, ELL students of that culture
could lead the group in making more culturally-complex alphabet books.
Key Words:​ jambo (hello), shule (school), rafiki (friend)
Grade Level:​ 4th or 5th grade

Title: ​ ​Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

APA Citation:
Martin B. J. (2004). ​Brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?​ (S. Denham, Trans.)
Alexander Grove, London: British Library Catalog.
Checklist:
● The story:

+ is interesting to children.
+ offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
- includes a rich, thick plot.
- includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and
interests.
- includes realistic, convincing characters.

● The illustrations:

+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.

+ correspond to the text.
+ hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
enhance and add to the story.

● Cultural considerations:

- Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.

- Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
- The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
+ The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral
traditions.
 - The author and/or illustrator are a part of the group represented.
+ “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?​ Is a classic children’s book that uses repetition to
introduce different animals and colors to the reader. This book is written by Bill Martin Jr. and
illustrated by Eric Carle. This translation is in Chinese and translated by Sylvia Denham. The
colorful illustrations make this book great for beginning readers and those learning English. The
book centers around having different kinds of animals that are all different colors seeing each
other as they all look at one another. At the end of the book, there are pictures of each animal and
its corresponding color on one page to show what the students had previously read and seen to
ensure they are able to identify the different colors and animals. An activity that I can see
students doing with this book is creating a picture of an animal and coloring it a certain color.
After doing this, they could write the animal’s name and color in both languages under it.
Another activity that could be done is a matching activity matching the color and animal names
to each other in both languages. For example, the word for yellow in Chinese being matched to
the word yellow in English. This book promotes inclusion because it is written in two languages
in a way that students can see the corresponding Englsh words to the words in their first
language.
Key words:​ animals, colors, exploration
Grade levels:​ PreK-2nd grade

Title: ​Hairs/Pelitos
APA Citation:
Cisneros, S. & Ybáñez, T. (1994). ​Hairs. ​New York, NY: ​Alfred A. Knopf Inc.
Checklist:
● The story:

+ is interesting to children.
+ offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
- includes a rich, thick plot.
- includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and interests.
+ includes realistic, convincing characters.

● The illustrations:

+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.

+ correspond to the text.
+ hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
+ enhance and add to the story.
 ● Cultural considerations:

+ Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.

+ Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
- The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
+ The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral traditions.
+ The author and/or illustrator are a part of the group represented.
- “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
Hairs (​ ​Pelitos)​ is an English/Spanish children’s story adapted from Sandra Cisneros’ novel, ​The
House on Mango Street.​ A child describes how each person in the family has hair that looks and
acts different: Papa’s stiff cut like a broom, Kiki’s bushy cap like fur, and the child’s lazy hair
which never obeys restraint. Nobody’s hair can compare to Mama’s though: curled into pretty
rosettes, perfectly pinned back, sweet like the smell of fresh-baked bread, safe, loving, and
compassionate. Cisneros portrays a celebration of one loving family that does not look the same
throughout, but despite their differences, shares an unbreakable bond. ​Hairs​ promotes
inclusiveness by presenting children an interesting, fresh new perspective on a diverse family,
challenging them to think about the criteria that make a group of people a family. The style and
language of the book are very age-appropriate with only around ten words per page, and the
large, rich illustrations not only accurately correspond to the text, but add a new layer to the
story: the representation of different skin colors from purple to green to yellow to blue. The
bilingual feature and low level of difficulty leads me to believe ​Hairs w​ ould be a great
introductory book for English Language Learners to read to self. It also lends itself to a
whole-group read aloud in any of the early childhood grades, and a follow up activity where each
child is challenged to create their own family portrait. Children will consider the traits they have
in common with their family members, and the aspects that make them uniquely different from
others. The purpose is to acknowledge individuality and diversity in their own homes.
Key words:​ familia (family), diferente (different), segura (safe)
Grade level: ​PreK-2nd grade

Title: ​Maria Had a Little Llama: Maria Tenía una Llamita​.

APA Citation: ​Dominguez, A. N. (2013).​ Maria had a little llama: Maria tenía una llamita.​
New York: Henry Holt.
Checklist:
The story:
+ is interesting to children.
- offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
 - includes a rich, thick plot.
+ includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and interests.
+ includes realistic, convincing characters.

The illustrations:
+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.
+ correspond to the text.
+ hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
+ enhance and add to the story.

Cultural considerations:
- Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.
+ Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
+ The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
- The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral traditions.
+ The author and/or illustrator are a part of the group represented.
+ “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
Maria Had A Little Llama by Angela Dominguez is an English and Spanish spin on the nursery
rhyme “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Little Maria had a white llama who followed her wherever she
went, but one day the llama had followed Maria to school. The children loved and laughed at the
llama, but the teacher was not happy so he sent the llama outside. The llama loved Maria so
much that it stayed around until the end of the school day. This book offers a unique way to
show children a different culture while offering the inclusiveness of children who are still
learning the English language. This book doesn’t fully expose the children to multiple
perspectives of the culture, but it offers a glimpse into a different culture. The illustrations of this
book are complex and colorful that engage the children’s interest in the book. The pictures also
add a glimpse into the culture. For example, there is a picture of the school in the town center
and a picture of a market. The illustrations also highlight the different clothing of the culture.
The story uses language that is age-appropriate for children. The text allows the children to
follow and understand the story even if they have never heard of the original nursery rhyme. In
my future classroom, I can use this book when incorporating a student's home language in the
class. An activity that I could do with my students is to have students act out the story using lines
from the book while students who speak Spanish say their lines in Spanish while also acting out
their parts. This will get the children engaged and think critically about the book because they
have to understand the characters before acting them out.
Keywords:​ niños (children), escuela (school), reglas (rules)
Grade Level: ​PreK-2nd grade

Title: ​I won’t bite!

APA Citation:
Chinese Translation:
Campbell, R. & Chiu S.D. (1992). ​I won’t bite!​ USA: Pan Asian Publications Inc.
Russian Translation:
Campbell, R. & Parkansky Z. (1992). ​I won’t bite!​ USA: Pan Asian Publications Inc.
Checklist:
● The story:

+ is interesting to children.
- offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
+ includes a rich, thick plot.
- includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and interests.
+ includes realistic, convincing characters.

● The illustrations:

+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.

+ correspond to the text.
+ hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
+ enhance and add to the story.

● Cultural considerations:

- Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.

- Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
- The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
+ The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral traditions.
+ The author and/or illustrator (​or translator​) are a part of the group represented.
- “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
The book ​I Won’t Bite​ is a repetitive text in which the author lists different animals that will not
bite and describes them with different adjectives on each page. At the end of the book, the author
changes the repeated phrase to say that the alligator will bite. The book has the English at the top
of the page, and translated text directly below. In the Chinese version, there are three different
types of Chinese included to adapt the book to an even larger grouping of people. While both of
the translated books do not include a discussion on different cultural topics, they do a have a plot
with lots of characters. Additionally, the images are vibrant and interactive with different
textures for the reader to feel. The simplicity of the book would make it easy for new English
speakers to read and teach them a lot of animal and adjective vocabulary terms. The textures on
the images would also help describe the meaning of the adjective words in the book. The authors
who translated the books are also part of the culture of the second language of the book. This
would be a good book to read one-on-one with ELL students in the classroom. The teacher could
read the English part and the student could read the other language. Afterwards, the students
could draw each animal discussed and label the picture in both languages to help them memorize
animal vocabulary.
Keywords: ​Bunny, Alligator, Chimp (names of animals in book)
Grade Level: ​PreK-1st Grade

Title: ​Super Oscar

APA Citation:
Hoya, O. D. la, Shulman, M., & Kopelke, L. (2006). ​Super Oscar​. ​(Montejo, A., Trans.). ​New
York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.
Checklist:
● The story:

+ is interesting to children.
- offers children a variety of things to think about, question, or consider.
+ is age-appropriate and children can understand what is represented.
+ includes a rich, thick plot.
+ includes a problem and resolution.
+ utilizes style and language that are appropriate for the children’s ages and interests.
+ includes realistic, convincing characters.

● The illustrations:

+ are accurate in terms of setting, plot, and characters.

+ correspond to the text.
+ hold the children’s interest while the text is read.
+ enhance and add to the story.

● Cultural considerations:

- Characters represent a variety of cultural groups.

- Children are exposed to multiple perspectives and values.
+ There are no negative stereotypes of the represented groups.
+ The lifestyles of the characters are genuine and complex not oversimplified or
generalized.
+ The characters use speech that accurately represents their culture and oral traditions.
+ The author and/or illustrator are a part of the group represented.
- “Good” characters reflect a variety of backgrounds.
- There is diversity represented within cultural groups.
Description/Evaluation/Recommended Use:
Super Oscar ​is a story inspired by famous Mexican-American fighter Oscar De La Hoya’s
recollection of a childhood tradition: neighborhood picnics. It was Oscar’s job to tell everyone
what to bring to the picnic, but one week the young daydreamer forgot. His mother feared there
would be no food to eat or games to play, but Oscar managed to use his lightning-fast moves,
fancy footwork, and unbeatable determination to organize the picnic all by himself. This account
of Oscar saving the day promotes self-efficacy and sends a message out to all of this famous
boxer’s young fans: they should never stop dreaming, and they can be heroes in their own
neighborhoods. This story is not only interesting to young children, but relatable.​ Super Oscar
has a rich, thick plot where the setting is established, the problem is introduced, and then events
take place leading up to the resolution. While it is great that ​the authors are a part of the group
represented, Mexican-Americans, there is no other representation of cultural groups, so children
are not exposed to multiple perspectives and values in ​Super Oscar.​ At the same time, ​the
illustrations certainly enhance the story and hold the children’s interest while they read. The
pictures show Oscar participating in a wide range of exercise and fitness activities from running
through the grocery store, stomping on the guacamole to mash the avocado, and using a jump
rope to whip up the cream for the strawberry shortcake. After reading, students could participate
in an outdoor activity where they exercise like Oscar: racing to a tree, or making groups of three
to jump rope. To reinforce the bilingual aspect of the book, have students give the Spanish word
for the verb they are demonstrating such as correr for run and saltar for jump.
Keywords: ​soñador incorregible (daydreamer), barrio (neighborhood), picnic (picnic)
Grade Level:​ PreK-2nd grade