As many of you know, I have been a Literacy Specialist for over fifteen years in New York City. Working in such a diverse city, I have always been surprised by the lack of multicultural reading material that has been available to my students over the years. Every good reading teacher knows that children relate better to books and texts that they can personally connect to and see themselves in. It’s the best way to instill a true love of literature in them and to create lifelong readers and learners.
You can imagine my excitement when I learned that I would have the opportunity to review the new bilingual picture book La Familia Cool: El tesoro más valioso / The Most Valuable Treasure
by Dania Santana. It is a heartwarming story about a multicultural family who celebrates its diversity and takes pride in instilling values in its members. My sons and I especially loved all of the different characters in the book who mirror the beautiful differences in our own multiracial family.
The story begins with the children in the family being ridiculed by other kids at school who didn’t believe that a family could have members with such differences in appearance and skin color and still truly be related. As their parents realized what was happening, they decided to share their rich cultural history in the form of old photographs and stories about their beloved ancestors. This exchange not only made the children feel fiercely proud, but it planted the seed of self-love and acceptance as well as laying the foundation of having tolerance for others within them.
As a family, we truly enjoyed reading this book together because it was the first time that we ever read a book about characters that were so similar to our own family in every way. Additionally, there were so many important themes in the book to elicit meaningful discussion between parents and their children such as bullying, cultural diversity, family values and celebrating heritage. I especially loved how it accurately depicted the love and acceptance within Latino families that we strive to impart to our children every single day. These are lasting lessons that will transcend the test of time.
You can purchase La Familia Cool: El tesoro más valioso / The Most Valuable Treasure for your classroom or child this holiday season on Amazon.com
Let’s Discuss: What are some of the ways that you instill lessons about tolerance and celebrating the differences in all people within your own children?
GIVEAWAY:
Our Sponsor is giving away one copy of La Familia Cool: El tesoro más valioso / The Most Valuable Treasure (ARV $9.95) to one reader of Tough Cookie Mommy!a Rafflecopter giveaway
Disclosure: I participated in this campaign on behalf of PreK12Plaza. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating and to facilitate this review. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
© 2015, Tough Cookie Mommy. All rights reserved.
My Daughter is Grown now, and I have Grandchildren. I always tried to teach her to be kind and tolerant of all people. I must have done a pretty good job, she is a sweetheart to all of her friends and family. No matter what their heritage is.
I constantly talk about how everything and everyone is different and how that is okay. The world would be boring if everyone were the same.
Sounds like a fabulous book! I would be eager to read it with my nephew. Our family is built on numerous cultures and its fun to celebrate the beliefs behind each culturally significant day/week together. We tend to discuss similarities and differences behind each celebration when events tend to overlap. Based on our neighborhood, where my nephews play, everyone/family is different, no two families are alike, and it’s unconsciously accepted by the kids.
Well, we are a multiracial family. Naturally, just the diversity of our family & our friends does the most to teach my children about tolerance. We also have “Around the World” nights in our home, we spend a month learning about a place, it’s people & their culture, then at the end of the month we cook a dinner from that area, listen to the music, do a craft, etc. It’s very fun.
As a mom with multiracial children, I totally appreciate this too! Sometimes kids can struggle with feeling a part of things because they’re in the middle, so this is great for them too.
We have lots of multicultural friends so we are invited over to their cultural celebrations and we invite them to our events as well. It’s so much fun for all of us!
This sounds like a great book. I always try to teach my son to treat everyone with respect . I always enjoy learning about other cultures.
What a fantastic sounding book for those with children, I remember just not really noticing the difference in people till I was a lot older myself, I had mix heritage friends and they didn’t seem any different on the surface though I loved hearing the different things they did.
What a great book. So important to teach kids that we are all different – and how it wouldn’t be fun if we were all the same.
This is such a great thing to teach kids. We are all different and that is what makes us special.
I am always most fascinated at how my young children do not seem to notice the differences. To them, people are just people. We can learn a lot from these kids of ours 🙂
My kids are grown ups. They grew up knowing about how children can be different in looks, but they are all just the same.
I tell my kids we are all different on purpose. How boring it would be if we were all the same. Everyone is special although sometime we don’t think so.
We keep an open conversation about the differences in our family and other families. I think that having parents who feel comfortable with differences can help our daughter feel comfortable and accepting and loving also.
We are a multicultural and family who practices different faiths. My sons learn that we all love each other and no matter what faith or what cultural differences exist we still love each other. We can still learn from others!
This sounds like a great book. I fully believe in reading to children, especially stories they can relate to. I find that it is hard to find ones that my daughter who is biracial can relate to.
I agree Maria–not enough books around that teach about diversity and tolerance for all. It is surprising that in NYC more books aren’t brought into the curriculum or at least the libraries of the schools. Maybe if the teacher’s asked the parents to get them these types of books in lieu of thank you gifts or in addition to?
No kids. I believe in being kind to everyone and to celebrate the differences and similarities.
Thanks for the contest.
I think being a role model and “modeling the way” is the best way to make sure your kids learn. You can talk all day, but you have to walk what you talk!
I just tell them “To each his own” that we are all different and need to accept this.
We teach by example. We are interracial so it is easy for us. We have lots of different people that we know and love and celebrate.
This is one of the crucial things one should teach to his or her kids. Understanding that everyone is different and unique, as well as accepting all is very important. Celebrate differences!