The Things That Unite Us

I was raised in Orange County, CA, at the height of the Cold War. It was a time and a place when Russians were demonized. One day I voiced my fear of the Russian people to mother.

“Oh, honey,” she said. “They are people just like us. This is about governments disagreeing, not people.”

I can remember how my concern lifted, my palpable sense of relief. These were people just like us, I realized.

For many of our children, fortunate to be living in ethnically and culturally diverse settings, this kind of fear may be less of an issue—but it may not.

Concerns about terrorism and war are pervasive, and if we are to help youngsters live with this emotional undercurrent, an emphasis on cross-cultural understanding is essential, as is information that is non-divisive and accurate. Books are an excellent way to highlight cultural similarities and introduce children to other countries.

The titles below fall under three categories—family, neighborhood, and global connections. All underscore the ways in which our hopes, dreams, and aspirations parallel one another’s; and all can serve as pattern books for elementary school children’s writing activities. As extensions for either social studies or language arts units, these picture books inform and educate as they introduce great stories and fascinating facts.

The world over, parents and children value time together. There is no more affecting treatment of such moments than Barbara Kerley’s You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids around the World (National Geographic, 2005). Stunning, double-page photographs of children with their parents—catching fish, taking a walk, sharing a joke—from the United States to India, are paired with a simple text that reveals the myriad commonalities of the parental and filial bond, even as cultural differences are manifest. As a starting place for a discussion of those things that matter most, one could do no better.

Parallels to familiar traditions abound in Ifeoma Onyefulu’s Welcome Dede! (Frances Lincoln, 2004). This photo-essay details the days leading up to the naming ceremony of young Amarlai’s newborn cousin in Ghana. The importance of the name, the family involvement, and the sense of tradition will be reminiscent of other ceremonies in which children have participated. Even youngsters unfamiliar with the religious aspect of naming will recognize the weight accorded to picking just the right one, the community participation, and the gift giving.

Welcome Dede! is a potent tool for highlighting widely held cross-cultural values. As an extension activity, students might bring in a photo of themselves, a family member, or a friend as an infant and bind the pictures together in a book on how we welcome babies in our communities.

Francis Provencal and Catherine McNamara’s In a Ghanaian City (Benchmark, 2001) also offers a glimpse into life in this West African nation. A winning text and sharp, color photos follow seven-year-old Nii Kwei as he spends a typical day in the capital city of Accra.

Even though the foods and the amenities differ, the routines of school, soccer, chores, and homework will resonate with American students. As this photo-essay makes clear, parental expectations are similar whether one lives in urban Ghana or rural Missouri. Other titles in the “A Child’s Day” series include Maria de Fatima Campos’s In a Brazilian Village (2001), Sungwan So’s In a Chinese City (2001), and Sara Andrea Fajardo’s In a Peruvian City (2002, all Benchmark).

The role children around the world play in contributing to the support of their families is evidenced in Michael Foreman’s Mia’s Story: A Sketchbook of Hopes and Dreams (Candlewick, 2006). Soft, detailed watercolors and a handwritten text relate how a Chilean child’s fictional search for her lost dog ultimately provides a source of income for her family.

An animal is also instrumental in changing the fortune of a family in Page McBrier’s Beatrice’s Goat (S & S, 2001), illustrated by Lori Lohstoeter. This book, based on a true story, tells how the gift of a goat creates work for a young Ugandan girl, an income for her family, and catapults the girl’s dream of attending school into a reality.

Discussions about the importance of income and education will benefit children who may take their lifestyles and opportunities for granted. Attention on youngsters who work will resonate with students whose older siblings have had to leave school to do just that. Classroom-created lists or graphs of the ways in which children help out at home would support math and writing curricula, as they emphasize the universality of work within the family unit.

Easily one of the most charming books of the past year, Kelly Cunnane’s For You Are a Kenyan Child (Atheneum, 2006), presents a lively young protagonist sent out to tend his grandfather’s cows.

It’s a beautiful morning and a boring job; and this is a sociable child. So, as the cows roam, the boy makes his way through the village, greeting the tea shop proprietor, his grandmother, the chief, and an assortment of friends—until the late hour calls to mind his neglected responsibility. The boy puzzles, “Why did you wander?” No youngster will have trouble answering that question, and the atmosphere of forgiveness and understanding surrounding this boy is accentuated in Ana Juan’s whimsical paintings that glow with color and warmth.

Carole Lexa Schaeffer’s The Biggest Soap (Farrar, 2004), illustrated by Stacey Dressen-McQueen, celebrates a similar day in the life of a Micronesian child. Engaging prose, playful scenes of family and friends, and a brilliant tropical palette make this an exuberant homage to community camaraderie.

And what child has not, at one time or another, run with a friend or played in a puddle? The charming, cut-paper collage illustrations in Huy Voun Lee’s 1,2,3,Go! (Holt, 2000) depict children pulling a fishing line, rolling snowballs, and practicing karate kicks. No matter where these activities take place, the familiarity quotient is high—and patterning a number book on Lee’s title will encourage reflection and reinforce simple math concepts.

Maya Ajmera and John D. Ivanko’s pictorial Be My Neighbor (Charlesbridge, 2004) explores aspects of neighborhood—the places, the people, the buildings, the vehicles, the festivities—as they exist in villages, towns, and cities. The striking photographs are both intriguing and familiar; a playground, for example, looks the same the world over whether it is in Africa, Asia, or South America. This book could be used to spur discussion or to inspire writing and art about how these places and activities are reflected in our students’ lives. Children could respond in both words and pictures—or in digital photos, in imitation of the wonderful pictures in Be My Neighbor.

The urban environment is home to many children whose neighborhoods project a downtown character. Mimiko, the seven-year-old narrator of Mari Takabayashi’s I Live in Tokyo (Houghton, 2001), describes a year spent in her home city, a place teeming with life. The story is told through clear prose and a childlike voice, and is augmented with detailed watercolor scenes depicting high-rise buildings, cars, schools, and, of course, children.

The New Year’s celebration in January and monthly observances such as the Doll’s Festival and the Boys’ Festival allow young readers from the west to identify with the rhythm of a year in a big Asian city. School and time with friends combine with uniquely Japanese observances such as the tea ceremony to create a picture of life that, if foreign in some aspects, is utterly familiar in others.

A rural culture stands in contrast to Tokyo’s urban bustle in Rachel Crandell’s Hands of the Maya: Villagers at Work and Play (Holt, 2002). This Central American village is a place where children are expected to work and are supported by equally industrious adults. Despite the absence of motor vehicles, modern technology, and complex tools, the bonds of mutual respect, interdependence, and love could not be more clearly delineated.

Beyond the immediate neighborhood or village, citizens identify with their cultures and country. Lebanon A to Z: A Middle Eastern Mosaic by Marijean Boueri, Jill Boutros, and Joanne Sayad (Publishing Works, 2006) is a stylish book that employs the alphabet as a framing device. Multiple pages are devoted to some letters—“D” for “diversity” is the winner—and the detailed acrylic paintings by Tatiana Sabbagh are instrumental in imparting the flavor of a land of great natural beauty, long history, and rich customs.

Though the text is longer than that found in some picture books and the inclusion of many Lebanese words ups the ante on difficulty, this is unsurpassed as a pattern book for creating A to Z treatments on nations students have studied or their countries of origin. These student-produced books will create a classroom library rich in resources for comparative study.

Across cultures, diversity is often expressed within a framework of wide-ranging commonalities. Beatrice Hollyer’s Let’s Eat!: What Children Eat around the World (Holt, 2004), Margriet Ruurs’s My Librarian Is a Camel: How Books Are Brought to Children around the World (Boyds Mills, 2005), Jan Reynolds’s Celebrate!: Connections among Cultures (Lee & Low, 2006), and Barbara Kerley’s A Cool Drink of Water (National Geographic, 2002), all employ well-composed color photographs and a photo-essay approach to introduce life in settings from urban to rural subsistence. While these books make it clear that people all over the globe share similar needs, access to the resources to meet these needs is not equally distributed.

David J. Smith is highly successful in using metaphor to clarify the distribution of haves and have-nots. If the World Were a Village: A Book about the World’s People (Kids Can, 2002, updated 2005), illustrated by Shelagh Armstrong, reduces the entire population of the world to a village of 100 people. Statistics on language, poverty, education, health, and possessions are all framed in terms of percentages of those 100, giving children a clear idea of who has what and how much, as well as what we share.

The text serves ably as an augmentation to geography units, and Armstrong’s acrylic illustrations, with deep colors and strong black lines, combine with the book’s oversize format to give a clearer sense of what might otherwise simply be incomprehensible figures. Discussions about how economic issues impact interpersonal and national relationships might ensue. This is a book that can be dipped into, with allowances for conversational give and take.

Ongoing discussion of some of the issues raised in If the World Were a Village will help children consider barriers to accord and how they might be overcome. Books such as Mark Podwal’s Jerusalem Sky: Stars, Crosses, and Crescents (Doubleday, 2005) are reminders that what divides us can also unite us. Jerusalem Sky brings the ecumenical nature of this great city to the forefront in a poignant tribute to an attachment that has frequently erupted into violence. The impressionistic acrylic paintings are imbued with a reverence and respect that is carried through in the powerful, poetic prose. This city truly does belong to all the people of the Middle East, and should be a fertile ground for harmony.

Vladimir Radunsky takes on the issues of unity and peace directly in What Does Peace Feel Like? (S & S, 2004). Through the words of students attending the Ambrit International School in Rome, the author explores the sensory aspects of peace. How does peace look, sound, feel, smell, and taste? The answers of 8- to 10-year-old students will strike a chord with readers of all ages and all cultures. Radunsky’s signature jazz-influenced illustrations are softened, and the inclusion of the word for “peace” in close to 200 languages is a poignant touch. “Just imagine what we could build with peace. I can’t draw it all here. A book is too small for that.”

One book is small, but the changes a classroom, a library, a community full of books and discussion can create in understanding and worldview may, in fact, be big enough. In presenting these materials to our students, it’s worth remembering that, in the words of the Select Panel for the Promotion of Child Health, “Children are one-third of our population and all of our future.”