Beaty, J. J. (1997). Building bridges with multicultural picture

books: For children ages 3-5. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice-Hall.

Building Bridges with Multicultural Picture Books: For Children 3-5,
addresses one of the most important early childhood topics: multicultural
education. The text focuses on the common bonds of all children
everywhere while honoring their differences. Chapters describe books that
feature multicultural family members, as well as children characters
developing self-esteem, getting along with others, speaking other
languages, eating fine foods, making music and dance, and caring about the
earth.

This book helps teachers and student teachers learn how to choose
appropriate picture books, how to lead children into book extension
activities featuring multicultural characters, and how to develop an
entire multicultural curriculum with these books.

I choose this book because my goal is to become an elementary school
teacher and I believe that we must "focus on our likenesses and celebrate
our differences. According to the author, Janice Beaty, what counts most
of all in an every day classroom is:

1. A deep belief in the worth of every child.
2. An accepting attitude toward each of the children as an unique
individual.
3. Unqualified support for each child's development of emotional, social,
physical, cognitive, language, and creative skills on a daily basis.

My five questions to Janice Beaty are:

1. Did you have any experiences of racism towards yourself as a child?

2. Did you ever work in a classroom and use your own ideas for curriculum
areas?

3. How many languages can you speak?

4. What characters in books did you identify with or had a strong
affinity towards as a child?

5. Are there any books you would consider not reccomending that are
common throughout classrooms and perhaps hold some prejudist/racist
comments in them?

Submitted by Aubrey Robbins

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