Multicultural books are written so that readers can learn about and understand the various cultures of their own country or other countries around the world. As our world is increasing globalized, it is important for our students to learn about these other cultures. This may include books about African-Americans, Native-Americans, Latinos, or Asian-Americans. Or, they may include books about the people who live in different countries around the world. Well-written multiculture literature avoids stereotypes and serves to inform readers about other cultures to assist in their understanding.
The Breadwinner
By: Deborah Ellis
Reviewer: Christopher Schiemann
Grade Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 6.0
The Breadwinner is a book set in modern-day Afghanistan, where readers learn about the ruling Taliban leaders and how it affects their families. In this book, Parvana is an 11 year old girl, not yet in adolescence, who must work the streets of Kabul to make money for her family to survive while her father is in prison. Taliban law forbids her from being on the streets like this alone, so her family skirts the law by cutting her hair and dressing her as a boy. She must also deal with her often strained relationship with her older sister, and many will see the family dynamic issues that exist in other cultures and may resonate. Readers will learn a lot about the Afghani culture, how the Taliban laws affect their citizens, especially females, on a daily basis, and generally see how this culture can affect our foreign relations with the country. Deborah Ellis wrote two more books in the trilogy, Parvana's Journey and Mud City, for readers to learn the continued story of Parvana and her family.
Boys Without Names
By: Kashmira Sheth
Grade Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 4.2
From the Publisher: For eleven-year-old Gopal and his family, life in their rural Indian village is over: We stay, we starve, his baba has warned. With the darkness of night as cover, they flee to the big city of Mumbai in hopes of finding work and a brighter future. Gopal is eager to help support his struggling family until school starts, so when a stranger approaches him with the promise of a factory job, he jumps at the offer. But Gopal has been deceived. There is no factory, just a small, stuffy sweatshop where he and five other boys are forced to make beaded frames for no money and little food. The boys are forbidden to talk or even to call one another by their real names. In this atmosphere of distrust and isolation, locked in a rundown building in an unknown part of the city, Gopal despairs of ever seeing his family again. But late one night, when Gopal decides to share kahanis, or stories, he realizes that storytelling might be the boys' key to holding on to their sense of self and their hope for any kind of future. If he can make them feel more like brothers than enemies, their lives will be more bearable in the shop?and they might even find a way to escape.
The Cruisers
By: Walter Dean Myers
Grade Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 4.5
From the Publisher: Eighth grade is hard enough, but when you're a Cruiser, you're really put to the test. The launch of a new middle-grade series from bestselling award-winner Walter Dean Myers. Zander and his friends, Kambui, LaShonda, and Bobbi start their own newspaper, The Cruiser, as a means for speaking out, keeping the peace, and expressing what they believe. When the school launches a mock Civil War, Zander and his friends are forced to consider the true meaning of democracy and what it costs to stand up for a cause. The result is nothing they could have expected, and everything they could have hoped for.
90 Miles to Havana
By: Enrique Flores-Galbis
Grade Level: 5-8
Reading Level: 4.8
From the Publisher: When Julian's parents make the heartbreaking decision to send him and his two brothers away from Cuba to Miami via the Pedro Pan operation, the boys are thrust into a new world where bullies run rampant and it's not always clear how best to protect themselves. 90 Miles to Havanais a 2011 Pura Belpre Honor Book for Narrative and a 2011 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.