Welcome to the World Baby
Written By: Na'ima bint Robert
Illustrated by: Derek Brazell
Summary: Welcome to the World Baby is a story about a class that has been learning about the five senses. One student recently had a baby brother born. He shared with the class how his family traditionally welcomes a baby into the world. The teacher uses this as an opportunity to invite the whole class to bring in something to represent their family traditions for welcoming a baby into the world. As students of various cultural backgrounds bring in different items and explain their significance, the students notice that all five senses are represented in their traditions.
Review: What I love about this book is that several cultures are represented in meaningful and authentic ways. In the story, each student's culture is a valuable resource to the rest of the class in which they can explore the different senses a bit further. Multiculturalism is not thrown into the book as a side issue, but rather is central to the children's understanding of the material they are learning. The cultures are engaging, intriguing, and enriching to student learning.
Derek Brazell has done an excellent job on the illustrations in this book. The book is filled with vibrant colors and patterns. His illustrations of the students are wonderful - representing various cultures in authentic ways, putting thought and detail into each representation.
One detail that is particularly interesting is the lack of identification of each culture. While it is clear that many cultures are represented, none of them are named. I find this to be very beneficial as it allows students to still be seen as individuals, not representing an entire ethnicity by name, but just themselves and their family. Nevertheless, that ethnicity's traditions are deemed valuable. This also allows for an infinite number of traditions. Because the traditions are tied to families rather than ethnicities, this allows diversity within an ethnicity, as is true in society. This is valuable for children as they learn that there are endless ways of doing things in the world and not one is right or wrong.
The two languages, Korean and English, are represented equally, in my opinion. The Korean is always above the English on each page, but they are about the same size and the placement of the text on each page does not favor either language. I find this neutrality to be a good thing in this book since it is about multiculturalism in general rather than focusing in on one culture. If it was mostly centered on Korean culture, I would expect the Korean language to be more prominent to the structure of the book.
This book would be great for a Kindergarten class read-aloud during a unit on the five senses. Although it is not the focus of the book, it is what the students are learning about and all of the senses are notably represented. With prompting, this could be a great addition to a lesson on identifying the senses. It also would be a great resource to use if teaching on different cultural customs and traditions. This book would be an excellent way to open up opportunities for students to bring their own experiences and cultural background into the classroom.
If you are a parent interested in this book, I would still recommend it! This would be a great way to talk to your children about a new baby brother or sister and/or introduce them to important traditions they may not have had the chance to experience yet! It may also be fun to come up with your own family traditions after reading this book.
For more information, check out the author/illustrator page for this book below:
Review: What I love about this book is that several cultures are represented in meaningful and authentic ways. In the story, each student's culture is a valuable resource to the rest of the class in which they can explore the different senses a bit further. Multiculturalism is not thrown into the book as a side issue, but rather is central to the children's understanding of the material they are learning. The cultures are engaging, intriguing, and enriching to student learning.
Derek Brazell has done an excellent job on the illustrations in this book. The book is filled with vibrant colors and patterns. His illustrations of the students are wonderful - representing various cultures in authentic ways, putting thought and detail into each representation.
One detail that is particularly interesting is the lack of identification of each culture. While it is clear that many cultures are represented, none of them are named. I find this to be very beneficial as it allows students to still be seen as individuals, not representing an entire ethnicity by name, but just themselves and their family. Nevertheless, that ethnicity's traditions are deemed valuable. This also allows for an infinite number of traditions. Because the traditions are tied to families rather than ethnicities, this allows diversity within an ethnicity, as is true in society. This is valuable for children as they learn that there are endless ways of doing things in the world and not one is right or wrong.
The two languages, Korean and English, are represented equally, in my opinion. The Korean is always above the English on each page, but they are about the same size and the placement of the text on each page does not favor either language. I find this neutrality to be a good thing in this book since it is about multiculturalism in general rather than focusing in on one culture. If it was mostly centered on Korean culture, I would expect the Korean language to be more prominent to the structure of the book.
This book would be great for a Kindergarten class read-aloud during a unit on the five senses. Although it is not the focus of the book, it is what the students are learning about and all of the senses are notably represented. With prompting, this could be a great addition to a lesson on identifying the senses. It also would be a great resource to use if teaching on different cultural customs and traditions. This book would be an excellent way to open up opportunities for students to bring their own experiences and cultural background into the classroom.
If you are a parent interested in this book, I would still recommend it! This would be a great way to talk to your children about a new baby brother or sister and/or introduce them to important traditions they may not have had the chance to experience yet! It may also be fun to come up with your own family traditions after reading this book.
For more information, check out the author/illustrator page for this book below: