Cendrillon (Multicultural)

Author: Robert San Souci

On an island in the Caribbean sea, there was a girl who came from a poor family.  When her mother died, the only thing she could give her was a wand made of mahogany.  She was told that she could tap anything three times and it would temporarily change into something else and that the magic must be used on someone that she loved.
Time passed and the little girl, called Nannin', grew up to be a washerwoman for the people of her town. She became the godmother of a baby girl, Cendrillon, whose mother passed away of an illness shortly after giving birth. Cendrillion's father remarried an evil woman who gave birth to a girl who was just as evil as the mother! Cendrillon is forced to do hard housework and is treated very badly by the two women.
Nannin' must help Cendrillon find happiness and what other way to help than to use her wand!

After reading this story, I would ask my students to create a Venn diagram comparing this story to the American version of Cinderella.

Kamishibai Man (Multicultural Fiction)

 Author: Allen Say

This story is about a  man that lived in Japan his entire life.  During his younger years, he told stories to children using a cart filled with pictures and candies. Because of this, he was called the Kamishibai man. The children loved his stories and always came back for more.  As the years progressed and technology advanced, the children watched more television, used hand-held games, and really didn't have an interest in listening to his stories.  The Kamishibai man aged and didn't have the chance to tell many more stories but he later found out that he'd influenced people in ways he never imagined.

After this story, I would ask the children to become Kamishibai men/women and create their own never-ending stories, record it on a flip-camera and share with  a small group of their classmates.

The Talking Eggs (Folk Literature)

Author: Robert San Souci


In a small town in Louisiana, there lived 2 sisters named Rose and Blanche and their mother.  Blanche was a kind, intelligent girl while Rose was greedy, mean, and very unkind to Rose.  The mother was also unkind to Blanche but treated Rose like she was the best daughter in the world! She ordered Blanche to do all kind of chores while Rose did nothing! All of that changed when Blanche befriended this old witch in the woods. The old witch granted her talking eggs and told her which ones to listen to.  If Blanche follows the directions of the witch, she will have many riches! If not, she will face a horrible fate.


Since this book is very colorful, set in Louisiana, and has Creole dialect throughout the story, this would be a good time to discuss genre, setting, plot, and theme.  This story is fairly short so I would read the story to the students and let them fill in their own charts individually as we went along.

Cinderella: The Graphic Novel (Fairy Tale/Graphic Novel)

In this story, Ella's mother passes away and is left with her loving father. While Ella remains sad, her father finds a new wife who has two daughters.  All three of the women are evil to Ella, make her do their housework, and they even gave her the nickname Cinderella because her face always gets smudged with cinders when she cleans the fireplace.  Later, the prince of the town throws a ball to find a wife.  After begging and pleading, the evil step-mother still told Ella that she couldn't go.

After reading this story, I would ask my students to create an alternate ending to this traditional Cinderella story using the same graphic novel format.

Chinye: A West African Folk Tale (Multicultural Fiction)

In this Cindrella like story, a girl named Chinye lives with her evil step-mother and step sister, Nkechi and Adanma in West Africa.  Chinye always has to do strenous chores while her step-mother and step-sister do nothing and complain.  Well, one night, Nkechi demands Chinye to go down to the river to get water.  Even the bravest of people wouldn't dare to go to the river at night! On her journey there and back, Chinye meets a few animals and an old lady who tells her to go in a hut and pick up the smallest roundest gourd. Chinye did just that and found that there were jewels and riches inside.  Well, Nkechi sent Adanma to the river the next night in hopes that she would return with riches too.  Only this time, Adanma ignored the old lady's advice and grabbed the largest gourd she could find. The gourd was filled with destructive winds and they lost all of their belongings.  Nkechi and Adanma moved away and Chinye remained to help the people of her village.


This story is very colorful and interesting to read.  However, I find the ending to be rather abrupt. I would ask my students to be creative and come up with a brief, alternate ending for the story complete with illustrations. Then, if time allows, they could share them with the class.

Baloney, Henry P. (Science Fiction)

This ironically titled story is about an alien who is trying to get to school on time but fails to do so.  So, he tells his teacher a colorful story filled with different languages, aliens, and other planets and explains why he was 7 minutes late for school. Of course, the teacher thinks his story is just a bunch of baloney!


This is an interesting story filled with different languages.  Before actually reading the story, I would have my students partner up with another student, read through the glossary and record the definition and origin of the foreign words used in the story. I would ask them to keep a set of flashcards to have as a reference while we are reading the story together.

You Wouldn't Want to Be an Egyptian Mummy! Disgusting Things You'd Rather Not Know (Non- Fiction)

You wouldn't want to be an Egyptian mummy and this book tells you why! The Egyptians believe in life after death and they are prepared for it through mummification. You will be walked through every step of the process and will become an expert (especially after learning how to pull a brain out through the nostril and how to take out the intestines for preservation). Be prepared to learn things that you probably wouldn't want to know!

This book is filled with pictures and examples of the Egyptian culture and the mummification process.  To incorporate art and literacy, and as a type of informal assessment, I would ask the students to use help from the book to create their own sarcophagus and explain what steps they had to take.

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears (Folk Literature)

A mosquito is excited to tell his animal friends all about the crazy thing he saw the farmer doing the day before!  Too bad the first friend he tells doesn't believe him and puts sticks in his ears to stop hearing his lies. This was the start of a chaotic, even violent misunderstanding throughout the animals. The confusion is lead right back to the mosquito and he is forever shamed. Up until this day, he still wonders if everyone is still angry with him for causing so much mischief and he has to buzz in people's ears to find out!


To introduce the Prezi application to students, I would ask them to make their own version of the story or use the actual story and make a Prezi presentation. The link below is a example of how the student's might start their presentation:


http://prezi.com/mzkodkt7nkdf/why-mosquitoes-buzz-in-peoples-ears/