The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers

Book Overview

With over a thousand reviews of multicultural children's books organized by theme and reading level, The New Press Guide to Multicultural Resources for Young Readers offers what librarians, educators, and parents have been demanding for years: a comprehensive, definitive resource guide to multicultural reading material for children. The culmination of over five years of work involving hundreds of leading educators and librarians across the country, and funded by major grants from the Hitachi Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, and the Aaron Diamond Foundation, The Guide is the definitive work in its field.

All reviews have been written especially for this volume by teachers, librarians, and others actively involved in using these works with children. The reviews are organized using an innovative thematic approach designed to aid teachers and parents in integrating these works into existing reading lists and at home.

The Guide includes essays on key issues in multicultural education, such as recent immigrant experiences, human rights, and building cross-cultural relationships, as well as classics like the Council on Interracial Books for Children's "10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism." Also included are critical pieces such as "Illustrating the Point" and "Ethnic and Gender Stereotyping in Recent Disney Animation," commissioned especially for this volume.

An essential reference, The Guide will change classrooms, and will introduce a generation of readers to the best of multicultural writing.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1565843398
• ISBN13: 9781565843394
• Release Date: November 1997
• Publisher: New Press
• Length: 690 Pages
• Weight: 4.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 8.0" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

Detailed resource on multicultural literature for children, K-8

I'm currently enrolled in graduate school, and my field of interest is education. One of the classes I'm taking is about diversity in education, one which I'm enjoying immensely. I myself have a diverse background (Indian-Portuguese) and am married to an Irish Catholic,and our daughter is a living example of the mix of many cultures.So,this book also appealed to me on a personal level. There are so many perspectives on the issues of multiculturalism and diversity, and the number of materials out there is simply mind-boggling. I have found this book to be very useful in gaining insights into multicultural literature for grades K through 8. The book itself is well-organized, and contains over 1,000 critical book reviews on the subject as well as critical essays pertaining to multicultural education. In brief, here are the chapters contained within the book: Introduction Essays included are: Milestones in Children's Literature 10 Quick Ways to Analyze Children's Books for Racism and Sexism (very useful and insightful) The All-White World of Children's Books Chapter One: Who Am I? Who Are We? Addresses issues of identity and diversity in multicultural children's literature. Book reviews are provided for grades K-8. Chapter Two: The Family Very important and timely chapter as it deals with issues pertaining to marriage, siblings, divorce, single parents, blended families, foster care, adoption, and aging. On a personal level, I found Peggy Gillespie's essay, "Other" to be especially pertinent, as it addresses the interracial family and the issues they face. Chapter Three: Community/Friendship Covers the issues/themes of community service, cooperation, gangs, conflict resolution, and homelessness. Great ideas such as starting a literary club at school are also addressed. Chapter Four: Cultural Traditions Besides covering the different cultural traditions such as found in the Muslim, Christian, Jewish tradition, etc, this chapter has lots of information such as a segment on "Teaching Respect for Native Peoples", and insightful essays, such as "Ethnic and Gender Stereotyping in Disney Animation". Chapter Five: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Legends: Fantasy and Imagination Besides offering critical reviews of multicultural books in this genre, there are also interesting essays such as "Public Libraries: Cultural Repositories for Everyone's Stories" by Rose E. Warder. Chapter Six: Newcomers Establishing Roots Discusses how children come to grips with issues of isolation and language barriers, and how these themes can be integrated in the classroom context. Chapter Seven: Justice, Human Rights, Equity Discusses how literature can have a powerful impact in enabling children to recreate the world for themselves and future generations. Also stresses the importance of children learning to identify bias within books, research information, and analyze data, which is part of developing their cognitive skills in terms of abstract and critical thinking. Chapt

Great Reference

This is a great reference point for teachers of young children. It combines short essays and comments with a huge reference of multicultural literature, broken down by themes and ages. It is a huge undertaking and does not (cannot) hold everything you'll wish it does. But this is much more than a starting point and saves a lot of personal leg work. Well worth the investment for anyone serious about integrating a thorough multicultural curriculum for children.