For You Are a Kenyan Child
Presented by Paige Strecker, EDEL 411 Sect. B
Information
Author: Kelly Cunnane
Illustrator: Ana Juan
Genres: Comedy and Humor, General Fiction
Topic/Theme: Life in Kenya
Award(s) nominated or received: Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award
About the Author
About the Illustrator
Criteria for Notable Multicultural Books
2. Contemporary settings must align with current situations of a cultural group. Having lived in Africa for many years, Cunnane is able to provide an accurate portrayal of life in a Kenyan village. Juan's pictures, though fanciful, are generally accurate depictions and bring the setting to life. The art in the book really helps children to appreciate life in a Kenyan village in a way they would be unable to if they were only listening to the words.
3. Have an appealing format and be of endearing quality. Young children are known to be somewhat self-centered and to have difficulty viewing a situation from another person's perspective. This book aims to challenge children by putting them directly in the shoes of a Kenyan child, thousands of miles away. Cunnane achieves this by writing the book entirely in the second person. In this way, the book helps children to better understand a viewpoint and lifestyle other than their own, a valuable real-life skill.
For You Are a Kenyan Child - Lesson Idea
Common Core ELA Standard: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.1.4 Identify words and phrases in stories or poems that suggest feelings or appeal to the senses.
Literacy teaching objective: Students will identify words or phrases in the text For You Are a Kenyan Child that suggest a feeling or appeal to the senses.
Lesson Procedure:
The teacher will write the sentence, "The cat walked towards the mouse." on the board. Students will read the sentence aloud. The teacher will ask students what they know about the cat and mouse based on this sentence. She will then write the sentence, "The hungry cat walked quietly towards the mouse." Students will tell what they know about the mouse and cat with the extra descriptive words added in. The teacher will then write on the board, "The friendly cat walked happily toward the mouse." Students will then discuss how the addition of the new words change what we know about the cat and mouse completely. The teacher will tell the students that colorful descriptions in a piece of writing can give us a much better idea of what is going on and help us to understand characters, settings, and objects better.
The teacher will read the story For You Are a Kenyan Child aloud to the students. After reading each page, students will identify any descriptive phrases on that page that helped them to understand a character, the setting, or an object better. The teacher will write these phrases on the board.
Upon completion of the story, students will write a three sentence narrative about a day in their life, using at least three descriptive phrases. Some students will share their narrative with the class. The other students in the class will identify the descriptive phrases the student used in her story.