CHEE-LIN
A Giraffe's Journey
ABOUT THE BOOK
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2008
• Genre: Realistic Fiction
• Based On: A 15th century painting and poem by Shen Du
• Theme: Captivity and struggle, friendship and respect
• Awards: Bookbuilders Award, Gold Award, Senior Cades Award, etc.
Rumford, J. (2008). Chee-Lin: A Giraffe's Journey. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
JAMES RUMFORD
JAMES RUMFORD
ILLUSTRATION FROM BOOK
INSPIRATION FOR BOOK
CRITERIA FOR MULTICULTURAL LITERATURE
2. Setting should be representative of and consistent with historical or contemporary time, place, or situation of a particular culture: James Rumford did a lot of research into what these historical places looked like in the 15th century. His research looked into clothing and historical artifacts. The clothing that is worn by the Chinese characters in the books are very similar to those sketches and hieroglyphics that the book is based on. Another thing I thought was interesting was the James came across an teapot from the time period. He incorporated it into a page of the book which is an awesome historical tie in.
3. Include characters with a cultural group of two or more cultural groups who interact substantially and authentically: The really neat thing about this book is that it has more than one cultural group in it. This book focuses on the trade of Tweego between the African traders and the Chinese. These two groups of people interact when they send Tweego to Imperial China. Tweego starts out in a land that he is comfortable with and then travels to a land that he has never been before.