Children's Books: Different Family Structures

Happy Like Soccer Written by Maribeth Boelts Illustrated by Lauren Castillo

Summary Young Sierra loves soccer and plays on a team where they ride on a bus and outside the city to play. Sierra wants more than anything for her aunt to be able to make it to her game and have someone cheer for her on the sidelines like the rest of the team. However, her aunt works long hours at a restaurant that usually overlap with the soccer games. Sierra must come up with a quick idea to make sure her aunt can come to the last game of the season.

Affordances This story sets students up to have a discussion about families who might have different family set-ups. As far as the reader can tell, Sierra lives with her single aunt who works weekend shifts as opposed to what might be considered “normal” living with her mom and dad who have nine to five jobs on weekdays. This book gives a great opportunity for students to learn about and grow empathy for people who live in different family structures. This book also helps students be open to changes that they might not understand. For example, at the ending of the book Sierra asks her coach if they can change their normal routine of having the soccer games on Saturdays outside of the city to have the game inside of the city closer to Sierra’s home and on a day that her aunt does not work. The other students in the story might be confused or upset because they are changing their routine. When Sierra compares the soccer field near her apartment to the one they play games on, she gives off the impression that the one she plays games on is much nicer. This gives teachers a good opportunity to talk to students about being open to doing something they might not understand at first but might work in favor for another student.

Challenges This book is a great book but with the way it words things and compares certain things, it might be harder for a younger student to grasp without assistance. For example, Sierra explains that before every game when she sees her aunt she knows her aunt “can feel me low around the edges”. For a younger audience, they might be thinking “what edges? What is she talking about?”. But with further explanation and some classroom discussion they might realize, “okay, she’s talking about being happy about playing soccer but still a little sad that her aunt can’t make it”. The book also doesn’t directly address the living situation with her aunt and is left for students to put the pieces together.

Instructional Use

If you are trying to teach your students how to comprehend how a character is feeling, you can use a Hand Map (Dorfman & Cappelli, 2017, pg. 70). Ask students to trace their hand on a page in their Writer's Notebook. You can ask students what emotions Sierra might have felt throughout the story and ask them to write down five emotions, one on each drawn finger. Then have them write out specific examples of when she was feeling those emotions. Here is an example below:

Awards

• Bank Street College Best Children's Book of the Year

• Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices List

• A 2015 Elementary Connecticut Nutmeg Book Award nominee

Mango, Abuela, and Me Written by Meg Madina Illustrated by Angela Dominguez

Summary Mia is a young girl whose grandmother is moving in to live with her and her parents. At first, there was a language barrier between her grandmother and her as Mia could speak fluent English and her grandmother only spoke Spanish. Her grandmother would show her pictures of her old home and Mia’s grandfather and Mia would walk with her grandmother in the park after school. After time living together and getting to know one another, they would teach the other their language. Eventually, Mia surprised her grandmother with a parrot that reminded her of the parrot that lived in the mango tree by her grandmother’s old home. Rightfully so, they named the parrot Mango and soon the parrot was picking up Spanish and English phrases as Mia and her grandmother practiced together.

Affordances

Many Caucasian families don’t experience their grandparents coming to live with them. However, many other cultures do take in their elders as they get older. As a Caucasian child, it would be good exposure to the different family structures and traditions that other cultures have. On the other hand, someone who is in a culture that takes in their elders as they get older might relate to this book and what it is like for them to come home and have their grandparent there. This book is also a bilingual book, constantly using phrases in Spanish throughout the book in place of English words. It also sometimes gives translations of these Spanish words when Mia and her grandmother are practicing together. Lastly, this book is great because it shows anyone can be friends despite any differences or barriers they might have, it just takes a bit of work to get past them. At the end of the book, Mia’s mother is shocked that they learned each other’s languages so well. In response to her surprise, Mia’s grandmother explains that it was all because of hard practice. This promotes a growth mindset in students.

Challenges

This book is great overall and offers many translations for Spanish. However, some words are not translated and are used in place of English words. A child who doesn’t know English and is reading this book independently might not be able to understand the Spanish word or draw context clues to what it means. One other small thing I would say is that in one part of the book Mia is explaining the things she wishes she could tell her grandmother in Spanish. She says she “can run as fast as the boys”. This promotes gender inequality whereas if she wrote “can run faster than anyone else” it would be more inclusive.

Awards

• Pura Belpre Author Honor Award

• Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor Award

• ALSC Notable Children’s Book

References

Dorfman, L. R. & Cappelli, R., (2017). Mentor Texts: Teaching Writing Through Children's Literature, (K-6). Stenhouse Publishers, 2nd ed.

Boelts, M. & Castillo, L., (2012). Happy Like Soccer. Candlewick Press.

Medina, M. & Dominguez, A., (2015). Mango, Abuela, and Me. Candlewick Press.