Diversity, how others live, choices you may have to make… These are the themes that tie these books together. From a picturebook about heritage to a teen novel about different viewpoints. Happy reading and sharing with students!
Grandma, Cho Cho and Me, written by Morgan Christie, illustrated by Paulica Santos is a lovely picturebook that celebrates diversity. As a young girl and her grandma prepare a big Jamaican breakfast, she learns about her heritage. As the tradition is handed down from generation to generation, the foods, the dishes and the stories help her to form an image of ancestors and her own place in the world.
ISBN 978-1-77306-751-3, Groundwood Books
A Life Like Mine is a brilliant visual celebration of human life on our planet. The contents is organized in four main categories: Survival, Development, Protection and Participation. Within these areas, chapters cover essentials all children need, like water and food, war and peace, education and housing. Kids can find out what it is like to grow up on an Australian ranch or in a village in Rwanda. How do people in other countries cook and eat? What kind of religions are there?
Breathtaking photos complement text boxes and personal narratives of children around the world. This handbook to life on earth is a valuable tool for any classroom.
The book was produced in association with UNICEF. This book was first published by DK Publishers in 2002 but should still be readily available.
ISBN 0-7894-8859-0
Fly Away Home by Betty Quan, with art by Akin Duzakin is a beautiful multi-leveled picturebook that can be used by readers of all ages. The lyrical text focuses on birds – different birds on each page. While goldfinches leave home, while hummingbirds buzz with news, and magpies cloud the sun the art shows a second story. People walk, in long lines, in small groups. They follow the same paths as the birds, leaving home in search of a new place to live. And where birds allow other species to live amongst them, the people also find homes. We follow a girl and her mother throughout the story. And as they find a new home, so do the birds make new nests. A lovely, subtle story to share with students who have come from many different backgrounds.
ISBN 978-1-77306-962-3, Gorundwood Books
A Time to Choose by Martha Attema is a novel based on an angle of World War II which is not often discussed. We are all familiar with what went on in a room in a house in Amsterdam during German occupation, where people lived in hiding. A Time To Choose is the story of 16 year old Johannes who is Dutch. His movements and life, too, are restricted by the enemy’s rules and regulations. Even though his family lives on a farm, there is not enough food and soldiers can take anything they need for warfare purposes. Johannes’ father is a collaborator with the enemy. How does this effect Johannes and the rest of his family? During the final year of the war, Johannes is old enough to make his own decisions and listen to his own conscience. As he joins the underground resistance, he struggles with what it is right and with his father’s decisions. Johannes faces dangerous situations as he decides to help those who need it. An eye opener for readers of all ages and a story applicable to wars in the world today.
ISBN 1-55143-045-2, Orca Books
Julia and Romano by Eric Walters is a great, contemporary novel for teens. The seed for this book was planted when the author was asked, by a highschool student in a small town on Vancouver Island, what he would write about their town. Walters, not one to shy away from a challenge and always full of ideas for stories, immediately came up with a realistic plot that would appeal to students in this BC town.
Julia has to move with her mom, away from all of her friends, from Toronto to Campbell River in BC. Cody has lived there all of life. Julia becomes good friends with Cody and it isn’t until their friendship blossoms into something more, that the two discover that their parents represent very opposing sites of a picture: a mom who is a lawyer fighting for the environment and a father who owns the local logging company.
This realistic page turner is a true Romeo and Juliet saga. It not only paints a good picture of life in a close knit town, it is also a good story for readers to curl up with.
ISBN 978-1-77086-823-6, BCD Young Readers
Margriet Ruurs is a writer of many awardwinning books for children. She conducts author presentations to International Schools worldwide.