Mama Elizabeti

by S.A. Bodeen and Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen

Book Overview

A girl in Africa learns how to help take care of her younger siblings, including a new baby sister.

Elizabeti has a new baby sister, so now Elizabeti has to help take care of her younger brother, Obedi. Elizabeti knows just what to do. She has been taking care of her "baby," a rock doll named Eva, since Obedi was a baby.

But taking care of a real child isn't as easy as taking care of a rock doll. Elizabeti tries to sweep the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1584302364
• ISBN13: 9781584302360
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Length: 32 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 8.2" x 8.3"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

Happy family

I enjoy reading to my children and Mama Elizabeti along with the entire series is a must have for every mom. The book depicts a loving African family bonded together by devotion with love over flowing. Every baby born into this world should receive the great love of a family. Wonderful book for any age and stage, my grandmother, 2 year old niece and nephew also loved Mama Elizabeti.

Even better than Elizabeti's doll

While I enjoyed the entire Elizabeti series, this one stands out for its depiction of sibling love. While Elizabeti finds her young brother Obedi to be a handful, her love for him is apparent. The book is good-humored and presents a happy, loving family.

Reading Strategy and Multi Cultural

After reading Mama Elizabeti by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen, it appears that in this book the author's shares her knowledge as well as her experience from her days in the Peace Corps. The author also demonstrates the connection with a reading strategy known as text to world. Using this strategy she shows that there are similarities from other cultures of the world to our own. I recommend that this book be used as an excellent example to demonstrate how children throughout the world help their parents and find that growing up is part of a continuing learning experience. The book explains to children that as they grow up and learn, they will find not only joy and gratification in helping their parents and siblings, but they will also become aware that they do not need to give up their childhood pleasures and experiences. The book gives the reader the feeling that each person will find the time to enjoy things from the past, present, and future. It is a book that might be shared between parent and child, or in a classroom setting. It is a wonderful example of multicultural reading. I would also highly recommend this book to be used to model as well as be a starting point for discussion of the reading strategy: text to world. It is often difficult to find books that help teachers teach both multicultural experiences and strategies, this book is an example of both.