Diverse Perspective Book Blog #1

Title: "The Name Jar"
Written and Illustrated By: Yangsook Choi
Publisher: Dragonfly Books
Copyright: 2003
Number of Pages: 40
Genre: Multicultural

     "The Name Jar" is a great book to bring multicultural perspective into the classroom. As a little girl is moving from her country to America, she learns to be content with her name being different from the other children.
      "The Name Jar" has great illustrations that paint the image the story is trying to portray. The pictures are detailed, yet simple in the fact that they are painted very well but each page gives just the right amount of detail to set the scene. Overall the pictures do a good job of helping the reader connect to what is happening in Unhei's first day at an American school.

     Grade: 2nd
     Content area: Social Studies,
     Standard 9: - Describe how and why people from various cultures immigrate to the United States.
                        - Describing the importance of cultural unity and diversity within and across groups.

     This book could be tied into the social studies standard 9 for connection to the classroom. This standard is dealing with having students know why people might migrate to the U.S. and why it is important for there to be cultural unity. After reading the book, the teacher could have the students reflect and write out why they think Unhei's family came to America. They could also write out whether they think the class that Unhei was placed in had good unity or what they would have done to accept Unhei into the class. "The Name Jar" is a good book for helping students understand what it might be like for children coming from another country. Students who have never had to do so might not think about the struggle of the new or foreign students coming in. Reading this book and doing some form of reflective writing is a great way to bring an awareness of this to American students, and help make foreign students feel more at home.