Picture Book Resources
Grandfather's Journey by Allen Say
Allen Say tells the story of his grandfather, who left Japan in the early 1900s and travelled the United States. His grandfather was so enthralled with the country, he returned to live in California after getting married in Japan. But after a while, his grandfather longed for Japan and returned there. Eventually his grandson was born in Japan, to whom he passed on his wanderlust and love of California.
In just a few illustrations and simple lines of words Say is able to completely capture the dilemma of the expat, that they just aren't quite sure where they fully belong. (Incidentally, those illustrations are incredible...you are completely justified in picking this one up just to look at the pictures.)
Activity tie-ins:
- TCKs: This is a great one for third culture kids. Say and his grandfather both fully understand common hazards of living in a different culture. This is a quick read, so it can be used even with little ones to talk with kids about how they might identify with the author and his grandfather.
- History: Say's Grandfather gets to travel across much of the turn of the 20th century United States. The illustrations do a great survey of the land and time period, making this a good one to help students visualize that time period.
- WWII: Say's Grandfather wanted to return to the United States for another visit before his death but World War II got in the way. Say mentions the destruction of some of their family homes because of the war. This is a very unique Japanese perspective of WWII. The Says obviously love the United States but also love Japan.
- Family History & Summarizing: Say is able to summarize three generations of history in about 32 sentences. It's a great example of being able to summarize the important points to tell the story he wanted to tell succinctly. Students should easily be able to realize he left out lots and lots of details, but also be able to see that he still told the main story. This would be a great example before students write their own summary of something. It's also obvious Say spent time communicating with his family about their stories. Students could be asked to research their own family history and challenged to summarize a story in just 32 lines. What do they find they have in common? If grandparents are unavailable, perhaps students could adopt a grandparent from among neighbors or friends and tell their story in a picture book.
- Caldecott: This book won the Caldecott Medal. That in itself tells me where Allen Say chose to make his home (you have to be a US citizen to win this award). Have students research this award or other awards out there in other countries for illustrators.
- Allen Say: Say has written and illustrated many other multicultural stories. We have several of them in our Elementary Media Center. Challenge students to see if they can read them all and decide which one is their favorite and why. What kinds of cultures did they get to learn about?
My First Book of Japanese Words: an ABC Rhyming Book by Michelle Haney Brown, ill. by Aya Padron
If you're going to visit Japan or studying Japan, this is a must read. It is a fantastic little alphabet book. The words chosen are things that a Japanese child would know or things you'd likely come across when visiting Japan. And it doesn't just identify each item's Japanese word but also tells a little bit about it. There's a spectacular pronunciation guide for the anglicized transliterations and some information on the different types of Japanese writing. (Each page also has the word written in Kanji and Kana, Japanese pictographs and alphabet.) There's also notes on the letters not found in the Japanese alphabet (though in this edition the notes page at the front has a typo and wrote W instead of X as one of the letters, the actual letter pages are correct). It's a very informative alphabet book, written in catchy rhymes, and beautifully illustrated.
Activity tie-ins:
- Japan: This almost goes without saying, but this is a great book to include when studying Japan. There are animals mentioned found nowhere else in the world, and of course there's the Japanese characters, etc. The author wrote this book after a foreign exchange experience in Japan.
- Alphabet Books: Alphabet books are great for kids just learning the alphabet. It's also a fun and somewhat challenging critical thinking activity to get kids to make their own alphabet list of words from their culture. Can they come up with words that people would use if they visited the country? It's a little harder than it sounds.
- Linguistics: Some of the words in Japanese bear a resemblance to other Asian words for the same things. It's a good opportunity to talk about how languages have developed from older languages and can be grouped in families. If you go back far enough with this, you could tie this in with a lesson on the Tower of Babel. Also, some of the Japanese words in this book are things we come across daily, like oishii. You can also talk about foreign words adopted into another language. Have students identify some foreign words Americans have adopted into their English, or some English words that have been adopted into Thai.
- Rhyming: Those studying rhyming words or poetry can use this as an example of an informative book written in rhyme. Have students compose and write or say their own informative rhymes.
- Psychology/Brain Science: Ask students why they think the author chose to write this book in rhyme, and then you could tie this into a lesson on how and why rhyming helps us remember things better. What are the students trying to study right now? Challenge them to put some of it in rhyme to help the memory process.
- Art: Art students could analyze the Asian-influenced illustrations in this book. What makes them look Asian?
It's the three little pigs and the big bad wolf as you've never seen them before. Yes, they have the normal houses of straw, sticks, and bricks. But they also have taken martial arts lessons. Well, the first pig and second pig took some martial arts lessons, but luckily for them, the third pig stuck to it and can scare off that wolf without touching a fur.
There are some books you read and you instantly know they'll be a huge hit with students. I knew this would be a huge hit with students, and it is. (In fact, you'll probably have to put a hold on it to get your hands on it.) Between the Asian setting, the word ninja in the title, and the fun cartoonish illustrations, it's a home run winner of a book. The story is also artfully told in rhyming text. There's a nice moral of perseverance paying off, and I liked that though the pigs' weapons were martial arts skills there was no physical violence.
Activity Tie-ins:
- Perseverance: The third little pig perseveres at her martial arts training and because of that, she's able to scare off the wolf. The first two little pigs did not persevere and it almost got them turned into pork chops. A great book to talk about trying new things, sticking with them even when it's hard, and recognizing the payoffs of perseverance. Is there a certain subject or project that may not be fun right now but will pay off eventually? The first two pigs eventually go back and study again, and that second time they keep at it. Ask students if there's some activity they would like to try again that maybe they gave up on too quickly. (In an over-zealous, perfectionist culture, it may also be important to talk about knowing when it is ok to give something up too.)
- Responsibility: The third little pig uses her martial arts skills responsibly. She threatens, but does not injure. Ask kids what some little pigs would have done to the wolf instead and have them debate which is better and why.
- Martial Arts Forms & Culture: Each little pig studies a different form of martial arts. This could be tied in to studies of culture, which culture is each martial arts form tied to? What is the importance of martial arts in Japan?
- Compare/Contrast: You probably thought of this one the minute you read the synopsis. This book just begs to be compared and contrasted with other versions of the Three Little Pigs story.
- Fairy Tale Adaptations (Culture/Writing/Drama): Schwartz & Santat adapted the Three Little Pigs story into the culture of Japan. Have students pick a fairy tale or folk tale and another culture. How would the story change in that culture? They could rewrite the story as a picture book or play.
- Poetry: This story is told in rhyme. Students could analyze the text to figure out what kind of poetry this is. Is it couplets or quatrains or epic? Another writing extension would be to have students rewrite their favorite fairytale/folktale in rhyme.
- Writing: Since kids love this book so much, it would be easy for them to stay immersed in the story. Have them write another adventure for the three ninja pigs.
- Japanese Architecture: A story that focuses on building projects, gives plenty of opportunity to study various architecture forms of that culture.
Modern Japan: a very short introduction by Christopher Goto-Jones
The title pretty much says it all. This is a little book (smaller than the average paperback), but written by an recognized expert in the field and covers the basics of modern Japanese civilization while also covering some history. I really like Oxford's Very Short Introduction series because they are so approachable. Students usually take one look at the average 400+ page nonfiction resource and start running in the other direction. Books in this series actually get checked out for recreational reading, not just assignments! So if you're looking for a good, short resource, look for the little books.
Activity Tie-Ins:
- History: A concise extra-textbook resource on Japanese history. It covers the past 400 years of history.
- Culture: This book was written in 2009, so it's a pretty current source for Japanese cultural information.
- Economics: This book has reliable information on an important country for the economy.
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