ChinaA Multicultural Literacy Map

By, Nikki Stecich and Jaclyn Emanuel

Brothers

By, Yin

The Story of Kites

By, Ying Chang Compestine

Globe Trotters Club: China

By, Janet

Riehecky

Lon Po Po

By, Ed Young

Be Water, My Friend

By, Ken Mochizuki

Traditions From China

By, Shelby Mamdani

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPYBooks on China

Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce Lee

By, Ken Mochizuki Age: 3rd grade Publisher: Lee and Low

Books Inc. 2006.Map: His family is from

Hong Kong.Summary: This book is a

biography about Bruce Lee. It is a picture book that talks about Bruce Lee’s life as a young boy. The book talks about his mistakes and how he overcomes the challenges. The books talks about Lees life while living in Hong Kong and his aspiration to become a film star. Lee had some behavior problems and his parents sent him to San Francisco to go to school. The last page of the book is a summary of the rest of his life.

Brothers By, Yin

Age: 2nd and 3rd gradePublisher: Philomel Books. NY.

2006Map: Yin’s family is from Hong

Kong and her stories are inspired from them

Summary: This is a picture book about a young Chinese boys voyage to America to visit his brother. When he arrives, his brother tells him that he must not venture outside of Chinatown. However, Ming gets lonely and ventures to find a friend. Ming meets a young Irish boy named Patrick. The two become friends and they teach each other about their cultures. Ming’s brother is worried about their friendship because not all people accept each other for their differences. Suddenly, Ming’s brother’s store is not making money and the boys come up with a plan to help him. They bring in more customers by posting a sign above the store that says “We Speak English,” so the other people living around them know that it is not just a store for the Chinese. At the end the store is saved and the two boys realize they are more than just friends – they are more like brothers. This is a great multicultural book to teach students about a culture and the meaning of friendship.

Traditions From China

By, Shelby Mamdani

Age: 3rd gradePublisher: Steck-Vaughn Company. TX.

1999.Map: First Picture in the book is at this

location: Guangxi ProvinceSummary: This is an informational book

about the traditions and culture of China. There are seven “sub-stories” in the book which include: welcome to China, Chinese food, clothes and costume, music and dance, religion and festivals, China at play, and story time. The book takes the reader through the customs of China through its’ text and photographs. There are “fun facts” in the margins of the book, which are fun and interesting. The last section of the book, story time, provides a story about a Chinese monkey that was born naughty, but he followed his religion and visited the heavens, and became a hero by helping Lord Buddha. The story has a religious theme, but the moral of helping people is good to use in the classroom. This book provides student with a lot of cultural information about China, while entertaining them as well.

Globe-Trotters Club: ChinaBy, Janet Riehecky

Age: 2nd and 3rd gradePublisher: Carolrhoda Books Inc. MN. 1999.Map: The book talks a lot about the capital,

BeijingSummary: This is an informational book

about the culture and customs of China. The book the reader through many important parts of china. The narrators tells the reader everything they need to know before they come to visit China. The author tells them through these subtitles: water, what are you going to do?, people of china, three is a family, big cities, at home on the farm, getting around, historically speaking, the common language, some real characters, values and beliefs, celebrate, school days. Novels and folktales, what to wear, games and leisure, pins and needles, the food of China, mmm Good! The book focuses on what visitors need to know about the Chinese culture. Student s can learn a lot of information in the book through the short sublets. Each section is not very long, but they contain a lot of information.

Lon Po PoBy, Ed Young

Age: 2nd gradePublisher: Philomel Books. NY.

1989.

Map: Ed Young, author, was born in Tientsin

Summary: The story of Lo Po Po derived from the European tale of Little Red Riding Hood. The story is about three children, Shang, Tao, and Paotze, and their adventures with a wolf that comes to visit their home. The wolf visits the children dressed up as their grandmother. The children’s mother went to visit the grandmother, so the children are skeptical when the wolf arrives dressed as their grandmother. However, the wolf tricks the children into letting him in by telling them excuses to why his face is so hairy, and his voice is so low. After the children let him in, the wolf blows out the candle and they know something is wrong. The children run outside and climb a tree full of gingko nuts. The wolf stands below the tree and sees the children eating the nuts. He begs them to give him some. The children trick the wolf and it finally ends when he falls from the tree and breaks his heart into pieces. This is a fun, traditional story that has cultural references that teach students about China.

The Story Of KitesBy, Yin Chang Compestine

Age: 3rd gradePublisher: Holiday

House, Inc. NY. 2003.Map: The author is from

Wuhon, China and the book takes place in her village there.

Summary: This is a folktale about how the kite was made in China.This is a story about three children who are sick of chasing the birds away from their parents’ rice fields. They try multiple ways to keep the birds away by throwing things into the air. The children start to come on to something when they attach their homework onto chopsticks and throw it up in the air. Then, the children try to make wings to scare the bids off with chicken feathers, but that doesn’t work because they are too light. Finally, they make kites to scare the birds off.

The Story Of Kites Quotation

“ Since they make music like the strings of the zheng as they

fly in the wind, I call them fengzheng- wind zheng- kites.”

In-Depth Analysis: The Story of Kites

In the book, The Story of Kites, characterization is an important theme that takes the reader further into the book. There are three main characters, Ting, Pan and Kuai that tell the story of the kite through their lifelike tale. All three characters develop through out the story in this realistic fiction book. The book portrays these children as lifelike by their struggle to solve a problem. All three children have the same problem of scaring off the birds in the rice fields and they struggle to come up with a way to do so. The children go through a trial and error period, until they finally find something that works. The author reveilles the characters’ intelligence through their ability to find a solution to a problem, then teach it to others to help the bigger problem. Although we know this is not a true story, the author makes the reader believe that it could be by making the characters personable and relatable. The character, Pan, has an excerpt where he throws his homework into the air to scare the birds away. He later says that he can not do this anymore because his teacher is getting upset with him. However he says, “But I love losing my homework, especially math.” This quote makes Pan relatable to students that have a least favorite subject and tend not to like to do that homework first. The author makes this character so relatable and life like.

Also, in this story, the setting plays a very important role. The setting, which is in China many years ago, gives the story its cultural feel (mood). The setting sets the tone of the book, so that we know it is relaxed and child-friendly. When we view the illustrations of the setting, they are inviting and we get the child-friendly mood. We can identify where the story takes place from the beginning of the story and from all of the pictures in the book. You do not really know when the story takes place, but the book starts with “Long ago in China…” The setting of this book is so important because it develops the characters in the story along with the plot. If you did not know where this story took place, there could be a very different take on this book. The setting allows the students to make references to the characters about where they came from and their lives. If we did not know about the setting of the rice fields in China, we would not be able to develop the characters who develop the kite.