Building Bridges With Multicultural Picture Books: For Children 3-5

by Janice J. Beaty

Focusing on the common bonds between children, this delightful new book shows how multicultural values and ideas can be infused into early childhood programs through the use of appropriate picturebooks. In addition to providing the criteria for choosing such books, Building Bridges with Multicultural Picture Books explains how to lead children into book extension activities and, eventually, how to create multicultural programs using picturebooks. Coverage demonstrates how to bring book characters to life for children through "play" with puppets, dolls, character cut-outs, chopsticks, blocks, drums, tape recorders, magnifying glasses, role-plays, and story re-enactments. Curriculum webs and Accomplishment Cards are introduced as effective tools for evaluating each child's gains and integrating multicultural topics into programs for children. An extensive index -- with topics ranging from adoption and animals to weather and writing -- helps readers choose among the 300 books discussed within the book. Useful for any educator or parent who wishes to learn a means for using picture books as an educational tool and how to bring the characters in those books "to life."

279 pages, Paperback

First published August 16, 1996

Reviews

[Yousseif Abdellatif · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not gonna lie, Building Bridges With Multicultural Picture Books: For Children 3-5 is one of those books that sneaks up on you. Beaty, Janice J. writes a retired teacher who starts leaving anonymous notes around town, and at first it's cute and low-key funny. Then one note goes unanswered, and the story takes a quiet, haunting turn that I did not see coming. A couple of the townspeople feel like cardboard cutouts. Who this is for: readers who like gentle stories with a little shadow in them. Who should pass: anyone who wants a fast, flashy plot.