Literature Review on the Text Set:
“We Are Water Protectors” written by C. Lindstrom & illustrated by M. Goade
“Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin” written by D. Tonatiuh
“Stella Diaz Never Gives Up” written by A. Dominguez
As you read this blog post, I invite you to use these three books as a text set for your classroom!
The reason why these three books go so well together is because of the cultural authenticity and critical issues. Each one of these authors and illustrators personally identify with the culture their character represents and therefore writes and illustrates with an authentic cultural perspective. The writing and illustrations represent real and respectful interpretations of their cultures. As an educator, you can feel safe reading these books with your class knowing that you are not contributing false or stereotyped images of cultures to your students.
The critical issues that these books focus on are on environmental friendliness, family connections, cultural perspectives, and multi-linguistics. The stories “Dear Primo” and “Stella Diaz” focus on the language aspect of Spanish-speaking families and integrate Spanish words throughout the text, letting the reader use context clues if they are unfamiliar. The use of these bilingual texts in your classroom can make bilingual students feel comforted seeing a text that they can relate to and can feel included in the classroom. It can also help students that are not Spanish speakers or are mono-linguistic be understanding and accepting of the students who do speak another language. This will create a safe-space in the classroom for all students to feel accepted and empathetic to others.
The story “Stella Diaz” also heavily focuses on the environmental impacts of everyday living. You cannot read this story without talking to your students about the environmental implications the story is sending. It also translates well into the story “We Are Water Protectors” because it is focused on saving water sources from harmful, human exploitation whereas “Stella Diaz” is focused on saving the ocean from human’s plastic waste.
Each of the three stories are written with cultural perspectives and talk about the closeness they share with their families. Each story has separate points that you as the instructor can bring up to your classroom and spark discussions. Each story also transitions well into the next story because of their similar features and perspectives.
Summary & Reflection of “Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin”
This story is about two young boys who are cousins and write letters to each other. In their letters, they each talk about what their life is like in their country. Carlitos lives in Mexico whereas Charlie lives in America. Carlitos writes about his life on his family farm, riding his bicycle to school, and playing soccer. Charlie writes about his life in the city, riding the subway to school and playing basketball at recess.
As each boy shares their differences in lifestyle, the reader can follow along and see the similarities the boys have as well.
Duncan Tonatiuh (toh-nah-tee-YOU) is both an author and illustrator and is a Mexican-American, growing up in Mexico and then moving to America later on in his life. The book “Dear Primo” won the award “2011 Belpre Illustrator Honor Book” for Tonatiuh’s creative style to tell the story. This story is a great one to share with your students in your classroom because it is a bilingual text! The story introduces Spanish words within the text and gives a non-Spanish speaking reader the chance to decode what that word means using context clues and visual cues. For readers who are Spanish speaking, the will get excited when the read this text and get to see their language being integrated in the story. If you read this with your classroom, Spanish speaking students will feel proud and intelligent for knowing what each Spanish word is without using the visual cues. This story is also great to read with the classroom because it emphasizes the lives of two seemingly very different children while at the same time cueing the reader in that the two children are not so different after all. It allows students to be curious, loving of these differences, and mindful that though someone may be different, we are a lot alike one another as well.
The way the illustrator created the story is what makes it so wonderful to read. You can see the two lives of the boys side-by-side on the pages and compare the two. On one side, you see Charlie playing basketball at recess with his friends and on the other side you can see Carlitos playing soccer with his friends. Even the comparison between names is interesting and something you can bring up with your class. Carlitos and Charlie are similar names, each starting with the letter ‘c’ and has the family pattern sound ‘-ar’ in it. But one is Spanish sounding and the other is American sounding, each representing the culture that the characters come from.
After reading this story with your students, you might start a discussion with them about the two characters, Charlie and Carlitos. It would be a good idea to talk about their differences as well as their similarities and express that the differences and similarities they have are both okay and good. Maybe you could ask them if they have someone they thought about when reading this book, if they know who might have a different life style than them, like the two boys in the book. They do not have to voice their thoughts out at this point but you could give the class the idea to write their own letter to the person they are thinking of and describe to them what their daily life is like to that person in their letter.
Another idea is to collaborate with a classroom from another state or country and create a pen-pal system where your students will be writing to their pen-pal from the other classroom. You can read the book and talk about how differences are okay and welcomed here. Afterwards, you can surprise them with the project of having pen-pals and remind them to keep the story in mind when they read their pen-pals letters.
Summary & Reflection of “Stella Diaz Never Gives Up”
The value of this book is that it examines important perspectives through the lens of a child. The story is written by the award-winning author, Angela Dominguez, who was born in Mexico and later moved to Texas. The author introduces many forms of culture in a positive and respectful manner. In the story, we have Stella and her family who is Mexican, though we also see the American side of it as well with Stella growing up in America. Her close friend, Jenny, is Vietnamese and a girl she meets at her summer camp is Puerto Rican. The story also mentions that Stella’s family is divorced and shows some of the tribulations in a child’s mind when dealing with that. Having this wide range of diversity in the storyline allows the reader to experience and understand different cultures through the lens of the characters like they would if they were looking through a window (Laminack & Kelly, 2017). It also allows a wide range of readers to reflect on the story and maybe see some similarities that they have with some of the cultures or characters as if they were looking into a mirror (Laminack & Kelly, 2017). Because the book has integrated Spanish words and phrases within the story illuminates the importance of the story. Every reader has something to learn when reading the book. A non-Spanish speaker can learn some new phrases or words in Spanish and begin to create a love for the diversity in languages and acceptance for the people who speak this language. The Spanish speaking reader can read alongside the Spanish words and phrases and practice reading in both languages as they begin to understand the valuable skill set they have. They can also look to the characters’ lives and perhaps relate to how Stella is feeling a little shy for not knowing more Spanish or how Mariel is feeling alone and wanting more friends who can speak Spanish. This book opens so many doors for students because of the diverse amount of characters and personalities in the story.
An activity that would be great to bring up after reading this story is to get your students involved in a community project like Stella Diaz did in the book. The story alone should give your students plenty of inspiration and ideas for how they can make a difference (ex. Fundraisers, community clean-up, poster-making, etc.). Ask students what Stella did first when she was interested in a topic (research it). Let this set students up to do some research before they decide what they want to do in their community for their project. Students should research, plan, reflect, and then take action completing their project. Afterwards, another discussion should take place to ask students what their next steps will be or what they will continue to do to continue this change (Laminack & Kelly, 2017).
Summary of “We Are Water Protectors”
I did a complete summary and review of this children’s book last week. You can find the link for this review here!
References:
Dominguez, A., (2020). Stella Diaz Never Gives Up. Roaring Book Press.
Laminack, L., & Kelly, K., (2017). Reading to Make a Difference: Using Literature to Help Students Speak Freely, Think Deeply, and Take Action. New Hampshire: Heinemann Publishers.
Tonatiuh, D., (2010). Dear Primo: A Letter to My Cousin. Harry N. Abrams Books.
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