Our Family, Our Friends, Our World: An Annotated Guide to Significant Multicultural Books for Children and Teenagers

by Lyn Miller-Lachmann

"Our Family, Our Friends, Our World" is the first and only comprehensive, global resource that focuses on the life and character of diverse ethnic groups in North America, as well as the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0835230252
• ISBN13: 9780835230254
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Libraries Unlimited
• Length: 710 Pages
• Weight: 3.43 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.3" x 1.5" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

All the colors, flavors and and visions of our world

This resource contains annotated bibliographies for books of fiction, oral tradition and poetry for these major groups: African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Native-Americans. As stated in the preface, the resources are limited to those published 1985 through 1993 for individuals of preschool age through high school. Resources focus on the American experience, and do not include content or stories that occur in other locations. A total of 570 resources are listed in this title. Resources were reviewed by an Advisory Board for suitability. Advisors are clearly identified and include librarians, professors and a teacher of various ethnic backgrounds. Resource annotations are listed by type (fiction, oral tradition, poetry) and ethnic group. Also, resources are indexed by title, writer, illustrator, grade level and subject. Annotated citations are substantial and provide appropriate detail on the resource's content, quality, format, illustrations, interpretation of subject and suitability for intended audience. Through a quick reading of the citation, a teacher, librarian, parent or other user can easily determine whether the book might interest the reader, be topical for a lesson or plan, and serve well for individual reading, storytelling or other uses. At first glance, I would include this item in my collection of multi-ethnic resources as it provides a relatively recent, comprehensive list of print materials with quality, objective and complete annotated citations. This book is limited only by its scope of ethnic groups. For example, I could not answer patron questions or provide resources about their European ethnic background. Before making a final decision to buy this book, I would select and read a representative sampling of several listed resources. I could then compare and contrast the accuracy, completeness and objectivity of the resource's citation with my own independent read.

Solid multi-ethnic reference with abundant resource

This resource includes annotated citations for a wide variety of resources focused on international ethnic and national groups. These ethnic groups in the United States are covered: African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans. Also includes other areas and nations of the world, such as Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean, Central and South America, as well as Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. Approximately 1038 resources are listed. Resources are grouped first by ethnic group, then by grades: preschool through grade 3, grades 4-6, grades 7-9 and grades 10-12. Full citation information is included. Annotated citations are detailed and provide substantial information about the resource. Content scope, organization and format are described. When the resource is fiction, the story and characters are summarized, yet provide enough detail so I could glean an understanding of the style and relevance of the resource. This work also contains background and explanatory material that is useful for understanding the use and evaluation of multi-ethnic resources. For example, the Introduction section describes criteria for evaluation and the major concerns of evaluation (specifically, general accuracy, stereotypes, language, author's perspective, currency of facts and interpretation, audience, integration of cultural information, balance and multidimensionality, and illustrations). This material serves as a solid introduction to the need for and issues related to multi-ethnic bibliography. Additional context and background is provided for the ethnic or national group covered in this work. For example, the opening piece to the chapter on United States Native Americans describes the history, type and availability of resources for children and teenagers. I would include this resource in my collection. Its scope allows flexible use to answer questions about both ethnic groups located in the United States and other countries. The list of contributors indicates a solid diversity of individuals and professional backgrounds. However, I cannot directly ascertain the ethnicity or ethnic experiences of the contributors. The overall quality, completeness, breadth and depth of the citations is impressive. Given that Bowker is the publisher, I view the contents with hopes of more accuracy and correctness than resources from other publishers. However, I would still care to "spot check" several citations by a careful read of the original works.