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(Book giveaway at bottom of post)
Currently I am planning our homeschooling school year to incorporate our two newest daughters from Ethiopia. This is the first time we’ve adopted older kids, so it is also the first time I’ve homeschooled with a language barrier. My initial plan includes simple math, handwriting, and lots and lots of reading to gradually boost the girls’ vocabulary.
I will begin by reading simple children’s books to the girls, ones where pictures help provide a clue as to the context of the book. This week I plan to scour our bookshelves for books that feature kids of many colors, as well as stories that will be interesting to older elementary kids and yet have fairly simple language.
One of the things that really helps kids build vocabulary is when parents read books TO them. To maximize their language development, it is good to choose books with just a little higher reading level than they can handle on their own. Right now at the beginning, I will need to stick with fairly simple books. My girls can read some English, but their understanding of what they read is still limited.
Once my girls begin to understand more English, I have a list of interesting books I would like to read with them. The following is a list of ‘chapter’ books that feature immigrants from all over the world. I think it is great when we can help our kids see the broad picture of immigration, rather than only focusing on kids from Ethiopia.
1.) Refugee Boy– Benjamin Zephaniah, Bloomsbury, 2001. An Ethiopian boy comes to the UK.
2.) A Step From Heaven– An Na, Front Street, 2002. A girl comes to California from Korea.
3.) Children Of The River– Linda Crew, Random House, 1994. A Cambodian refugee comes to Oregon.
4.) Behind The Mountains– Edwidge Danticat, Scholastic First Person Fiction, 2003. A girl from Haiti wants to be reunited with her father in New York City.
5.) The Friends– Rosa Guy, 1973. A girl from West India is teased about her accent.
6.) Mona in the Promised Land– Jen Gish, Alfred Knopf, 1997. Jewish by choice, American by nationality, Mona has a Chinese last name.
7.) The Flight To Freedom– Ana Veciana-Suarez, First Person Fiction, 2003. A girl and her family flee Cuba to Florida.
8.) Tangled Threads, A Hmong Girl’s Story–Pegi Shea, Clarion, 2003. A girls balances her Hmong culture with life as an American teen.
9.) Marisol and Magdelena: The Sound of Our Sisterhood–Veronica Chambers, Hyperion, 2001. An American Latinegra (Black and Latina) girl is sent to Panama to live with her grandmother.
10.) Tanuja, Born Confused–Desai Hidier, Scholastic, 2002. An Indian-American girl tries to balance two cultures.
I’d love to hear about simple beginning-reader books your kids have enjoyed, especially those that are interesting to older kids as they are first learning English. In fact, if you can give me some ideas for simple books with intriguing stories, I will enter your name in a drawing to win the book Held at a Distance: My Rediscovery of Ethiopia. I’ll enter your name in the drawing twice if at least one of the books you mention features kids of different ethnicities. You have until Friday morning to suggest books below, in commments.
Related links
ESL for new arrivals | ESL- Part Two
this book suggestion is for you! Actually, it’s the authors I’m suggesting. Since I don’t know your background with ESL, etc., maybe you’re already familiar with them.
Yvonne and David Freeman
http://www.heinemann.com
They are university professors who write extensively about teaching English Learners, particularly about teaching them in a way that is respectful of what they bring to the table. I had both of them as professors, and they are stupendous. Their books are easy to follow.
Another book I would suggest is Body Idioms and More, by May Pare. She is from Thailand. You can find her book at Amazon, or on her website. The book is organized by body parts. It’s straightforward, not illustrated. She will correspond with you by email, too. Very nice person.
http://bodyidioms.com/order.html
Picture Books:
Amelia’s Road
Dia’s Story Cloth
The Whispering Cloth
Ezra Jack Keats’ books
Donald Crews’ books
Crowning Glory
Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
Erandi’s Braids
Hairs/Pellitos by Sandra Cisneros
Family Pictures by Pat Mora
Calling the Doves by Juan Felipe Herrera (he has others, also)
Alma Flor Ada’s books
Seven Spools of Thread (Africa)
Patricia Polacco’s books–about 5th grade reading level, but wonderful true-life stories, including Thank You, Mr. Falker, about a girl who has difficulty learning to read
In My Family by Carmen Lomas Garza
More, More, More, Said the Baby–stories about 3 different babies, in 3 different families, including one that appears to be multi-racial
Books by Aliki
Families by Susan Kuklin–just ran across this–it’s non-fiction-color photographs–mixed families and not–family stories–looks good
How My Family Lives in America by Susan Kuklin
The Day Go-Go Went To Vote–voting in South Africa, I think
Families by Ann Morris–simple picture book with a few words on each page that tell what families are
She also has books about Shoes, Hats, Bread, Tools (I think)
Everybody Eats Rice, Everybody Bakes Bread and others in the series
The Ugly Vegetables
No, David by David Shannon-hilarious picture books with repetitive text that draws kids in–even my 5th graders can’t resist these simple books (he has others about David)
Robert Munsch books–author of I Love You Forever. Stephanie’s Ponytail is one of his books that I’ve read to my students and their parents (all English Learners). They love it! He has an outrageous sense of humor. One of my third grade students read the book 50 Below Zero EVERY DAY for the whole year, several times a day.
If you look for picture books about food, hair, and quilt/fabric art, you will find books from countries all over the world.
Non-fiction and Chapter Books
The Day We Had to Run
Esperanza Rising
All-of-a-Kind Family
The Littles
Gotta Run–more later
I have annotated book lists of 50 plus books related to your request, too. I’d have to dig them up.
As a children’s author & adoptive mom of 2 Ethiopian daughters, I really found simple picture books to be a fantastic tool for learning english. Perhaps starting with that would give your daughters a good way to appreciate language along with great art. Our favorites are these particular 3 (which we have had to buy 4 times now as we read them so often!!!):
*All Colors of the Earth; Sheila Hamanaka (a lovely book about diversity with fantastic art)
*Hiding Hoover; Elise Broach (hilarious, fun, silly, and imagination stretching)
*Jamaica’s Find; Juanita Havill & Annd Sibley O’Brien (the girls both love Jamaica, the ‘lessons’ are good and not too preachy, and the words
are fairly simple)
We’ve come a LONG LONG way in a short time with fun picture books and talking about the books after reading them. We also have had alot of success with the girls “writing” their own books using any letters or words they want and drawing the pictures.
~Beth
Oh, and of course, “Love the Skin You’re In”!
Beth
Isabell Monk (quotes from amazon reviews)
Blackberry Stew-”Useful bibliotherapy for children dealing with the loss of a loved one.”
Hope–”That night at bedtime, Poogee explains to her that she is generations of faith mixed with lots of love…they are shown the wedding of Hopes parents with their black and white families and friends celebrating together”
Family–”The star of Hope returns for a sequel, which again revolves around her ethnicity as the child of a white father and an African-American mother. Hope and her parents gather with members of her mother’s extended family at Aunt Poogee’s farm for their annual summer reunion. Into the relative- and food-filled house, Hope carries a box holding her contribution to the feast: pickles. “That’s different. But come to think of it, so are you,” a cousin comments”
The Colors of Us by Karen Katz–lovely book, both words and illustrations
Two Mrs. Gibsons (Black grandma, Japanese mother) by Toyomi Igus
I Love My Hair by Natasha Anastasia Tarpley–mother/daughter tale about self-acceptance
Hair by Kate Petty–I haven’t read this one, but it looks very good–hair around the world–common threads sort of thing. Other books in the series look at homes, playtimes, bicycles. (World Show and Tell books)
Hats Off to Hair by Virginia Kroll–
pictures of kids from all over the world and different haristyles.
Wild, Wild Hair by Nikki Grimes is an easy reader book
Hair Dance by Dinah Johnson–coming out in September–”air comes in all colors, textures, and styles. Whether it is worn long or short, in braids or cornrows, or left natural in an Afro, hair plays a big part in who we are and how we feel about ourselves. In this inspiring book, Kelly Johnson’s stunning photographs of girls wearing a range of hairstyles and the lyrical words of Dinah Johnson’s poem celebrate African American hair in all its radiant variety.”
For you: Strategies That Work by Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis–all about teaching comprehension, metacognitive thinking, having inner conversations with ‘the text.’ Second Edition, new this year. Uses mostly picture books, kids’ magazines, and short texts to teach.
Cassie’s Word Quilt by Faith Ringold–a vocabulary ‘tour’ of a young girl’s neighborhood.
Winter Lights by Anna Grossnickle Hines–”With these ingredients Anna Grossnickle Hines celebrates the lights that brighten the darkest season of our year. In poems and quilts she captures each heartening glow and flicker, from the moon and aurora borealis to the holiday lights of Santa Lucia, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and Chinese New Year to one lone candle and a hidden flashlight in the deep, dark night.”
The Tortilla Quilt by Jane Tenorio Coscarelli–there’s also The Tamale Quilt and The Pinata Quilt–family tales told through the quilts.
Maybe your girls would like making a memory quilt.
Have you heard of Words Their Way, for teaching word study, phonics, spelling? by Donald Bear, etal. This could help you with writing and reading. Lots and lots of suggestions and teaching tips/tools.
Have fun!
Mary, this is awesome!
We are in the process of adopting an 11 year old boy from Ethiopia. He was here for a camp for two weeks in July. I found two books on http://www.ethiopiareads.org that are English and Amharic. One is Fafi’s Sheep by Netsanet Kidanemariam and is about obedience. The other is The Fig Tree by Genet Araya about a mischievious girl who gets stuck up in the fig tree.
I am interested in what you will be doing in your homeschooling as we plan to homeschool also.