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Count Your Way Through India
Imagine floating a candle down the Ganges River in the five-day-long Hindu festival of lights. Learn the story of the Taj Mahal and its four minarets. As children count their way one to ten in the Hindi language, they will take a discovery tour of India. Well-known author Jim Haskin's text and Liz Brenner Dodson's brilliant full-color illustrations give readers a taste of India's rich culture and history.
School Library Journal praises the Count Your Way series: "Clever use of the numbers one through ten treats readers to a brief introduction to the culture, geography and language of each country."
-from book flap
School Library Journal praises the Count Your Way series: "Clever use of the numbers one through ten treats readers to a brief introduction to the culture, geography and language of each country."
-from book flap
Paperback
First published March 1, 1992
26 people want to read
About the author
James Haskins
211 books39 followersHaskins, James (1941–2005), author of nonfiction books for juveniles and adults, biographer, educator, critic, editor, and educational consultant. Born into a large family in a racially segregated middle-class section of Demopolis, Alabama, where he was not allowed to visit the town's public library, James S. Haskins was deeply affected by the swirl of events related to the mid-century civil rights movement. He received his bachelor's degree in history at Alabama State College, but limited career opportunities in the South in the early 1960s led him to seek employment in New York City. Two years of selling newspaper advertisements and working as a Wall Street stockbroker brought him to the realization that he was better suited for a career in education and thus he applied for a position in the New York City public school system. After teaching music at several locations, he found a job teaching a special education class at P.S. 92. Obsessed with the plight of his inner-city pupils, he was glad to discuss their problems with anyone who would listen, including a social worker who encouraged him to write his thoughts and experiences in a diary. This resulted in the publication of his first book, Diary of a Harlem Schoolteacher (1969), which was widely acclaimed. This initial success attracted the attention of major publishers who approached him to write books for children and adolescents.
An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).
Haskins launched his college teaching career in 1970 and continued lecturing on psychology, folklore, children's and young adult literature, and urban education at schools in New York and Indiana before landing a full-time professorship in the English department at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1977. That same year he authored The Cotton Club, a pictorial and social history of the notorious Harlem night club, which seven years later was transformed into a motion picture of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Among his books intended for adults or college-level readers are The Psychology of Black Language (1973) with Dr. Hugh Butts; Black Manifesto for Education (1973), which he edited; Snow Sculpture and Ice Carving (1974); Scott Joplin: The Man Who Made Rag-time (1978); Voodoo and Hoodoo: Their Tradition and Craft as Revealed by Actual Practitioners (1978); Richard Pryor, A Man and His Madness (1984); and Mabel Mercer: A Life (1988). He has contributed numerous critical essays and reviews to periodicals. Still, he is best known for his biographies, tailored for elementary and high school students. Most of these recount the triumphs of well-known contemporary African Americans, with whom many young people readily identify. The long list of persons he has profiled (often using the pen name Jim Haskins) include Colin Powell, Barbara Jordon, Thurgood Marshall, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Diana Ross, Katherine Dunham, Guion Bluford, Andrew Young, Bill Cosby, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, and Rosa Parks. Biographies of prominent individuals who are not African American include Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Corazón Aquino, Winnie Mandela, and Christopher Columbus.
An admitted need to reconcile social disparities and a desire to interpret events to young people and to motivate them to read and be influenced by accomplished individuals—particularly deprived youth whom he felt had far too few role models to read about—led him to author more than one hundred books on a diverse array of topics. Written for a general audience of juveniles, his titles include The War and the Protest: Viet Nam (1971), Religions (1973), Jobs in Business and Office (1974), The Consumer Movement (1975), Your Rights, Past and Present: A Guide for Young People (1975), Teen-age Alcoholism (1976), The Long Struggle: The Story of American Labor (1976), Who Are the Handicapped (1978), Gambling—Who Really Wins (1978), Werewolves (1981), and The New Americans: Cuban Boat People (1982).
Haskins launched his college teaching career in 1970 and continued lecturing on psychology, folklore, children's and young adult literature, and urban education at schools in New York and Indiana before landing a full-time professorship in the English department at the University of Florida at Gainesville in 1977. That same year he authored The Cotton Club, a pictorial and social history of the notorious Harlem night club, which seven years later was transformed into a motion picture of the same name directed by Francis Ford Coppola.
Among his books intended for adults or college-level readers are The Psychology of Black Language (1973) with Dr. Hugh Butts; Black Manifesto for Education (1973), which he edited; Snow Sculpture and Ice Carving (1974); Scott Joplin: The Man Who Made Rag-time (1978); Voodoo and Hoodoo: Their Tradition and Craft as Revealed by Actual Practitioners (1978); Richard Pryor, A Man and His Madness (1984); and Mabel Mercer: A Life (1988). He has contributed numerous critical essays and reviews to periodicals. Still, he is best known for his biographies, tailored for elementary and high school students. Most of these recount the triumphs of well-known contemporary African Americans, with whom many young people readily identify. The long list of persons he has profiled (often using the pen name Jim Haskins) include Colin Powell, Barbara Jordon, Thurgood Marshall, Sugar Ray Leonard, Magic Johnson, Diana Ross, Katherine Dunham, Guion Bluford, Andrew Young, Bill Cosby, Kareem Adbul-Jabbar, Shirley Chisholm, Lena Horne, and Rosa Parks. Biographies of prominent individuals who are not African American include Indira and Rajiv Gandhi, Shirley Temple Black, Corazón Aquino, Winnie Mandela, and Christopher Columbus.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 23, 2016
I was just going through tags on the library catalog so hadn't pinged that the author of this book was likely not Indian himself, but when I saw on the front page "Special thanks to Professors David Kopf and Rocky Miranda, from the Departments of History and Linguistics (respectively) at the University of Minnesota, for their assistance," I realized that despite the Introductory Note on the facing page explaining that Hindi is the official language of India and "Hindi is the language in which we will count our way through India," the author likely wasn't actually fluent in Hindi. (Because of the book's conceit of using Hindi, I had assumed the book was aimed at Indian children, not realizing that this is part of a series who idea is, as the GR blurb said, "These beautifully illustrated, interactive picture books introduce children to foreign cultures and languages.")
This book felt text-heavy for kids who are just learning numbers, which made more sense once I realized the point was to educate kids about India rather than to teach them numbers. A couple of the numbers felt like not a lot of effort went in to them -- "Eight things you are likely to see on a busy street in a modern Indian city are... Of the thousands of wildlife species that inhabit India, nine are..." -- and some of the explanatory bits felt a bit forced ("Despite all the problems that come with a country that has such a huge and varied population, India remains a democratic nation with a strong respect for the law.") or Othering/vague ("A unique mixture of old and new can be found throughout India.").
This book felt text-heavy for kids who are just learning numbers, which made more sense once I realized the point was to educate kids about India rather than to teach them numbers. A couple of the numbers felt like not a lot of effort went in to them -- "Eight things you are likely to see on a busy street in a modern Indian city are... Of the thousands of wildlife species that inhabit India, nine are..." -- and some of the explanatory bits felt a bit forced ("Despite all the problems that come with a country that has such a huge and varied population, India remains a democratic nation with a strong respect for the law.") or Othering/vague ("A unique mixture of old and new can be found throughout India.").
January 30, 2016
Interesting facts, although the pronunciation guide left much to be desired.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews