China
A Multicultural Literacy Map
By, Nikki Stecich and Jaclyn Emanuel
Books
on
China
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPY
Brothers
Globe Trotters Club:
China
By, Yin
By, Janet
Riehecky
Lon Po Po
The Story of Kites
By, Ed Young
By, Ying Chang
Compestine
Be Water, My Friend
Traditions From China
By, Shelby Mamdani
By, Ken Mochizuki
Be Water, My Friend: The Early Years of Bruce
Lee
By, Ken Mochizuki
rd
Age: 3 grade
Publisher: Lee and Low Books Inc.
2006.
Map: His family is from Hong
Kong.
Summary: This book is a biography
about Bruce Lee. It is a picture book
that talks about Bruce Lee’s life as a
young boy. The book talks about his
mistakes and how he overcomes the
challenges. The books talks about Lees
life while living in Hong Kong and his
aspiration to become a film star. Lee
had some behavior problems and his
parents sent him to San Francisco to go
to school. The last page of the book is a
summary of the rest of his life.
Age: 2nd and 3rd grade
Publisher: Philomel Books. NY. 2006
Map: Yin’s family is from Hong Kong
and her stories are inspired from
them
Summary: This is a picture book about a young
Chinese boys voyage to America to visit his
brother. When he arrives, his brother tells
him that he must not venture outside of
Chinatown. However, Ming gets lonely and
ventures to find a friend. Ming meets a
young Irish boy named Patrick. The two
become friends and they teach each other
about their cultures. Ming’s brother is
worried about their friendship because not
all people accept each other for their
differences. Suddenly, Ming’s brother’s store
is not making money and the boys come up
with a plan to help him. They bring in more
customers by posting a sign above the store
that says “We Speak English,” so the other
people living around them know that it is not
just a store for the Chinese. At the end the
store is saved and the two boys realize they
are more than just friends – they are more
like brothers. This is a great multicultural
book to teach students about a culture and
the meaning of friendship.
Brothers
By, Yin
Traditions From China
By, Shelby Mamdani
Age: 3rd grade
Publisher: Steck-Vaughn Company. TX. 1999.
Map: First Picture in the book is at this location: Guangxi
Province
Summary: This is an informational book about the
traditions and culture of China. There are seven “substories” in the book which include: welcome to China,
Chinese food, clothes and costume, music and dance,
religion and festivals, China at play, and story time.
The book takes the reader through the customs of
China through its’ text and photographs. There are
“fun facts” in the margins of the book, which are fun
and interesting. The last section of the book, story
time, provides a story about a Chinese monkey that
was born naughty, but he followed his religion and
visited the heavens, and became a hero by helping
Lord Buddha. The story has a religious theme, but the
moral of helping people is good to use in the
classroom. This book provides student with a lot of
cultural information about China, while entertaining
them as well.
Globe-Trotters Club: China
By, Janet Riehecky
Age: 2nd and 3rd grade
Publisher: Carolrhoda Books Inc. MN. 1999.
Map: The book talks a lot about the capital, Beijing
Summary: This is an informational book about the
culture and customs of China. The book the reader
through many important parts of china. The
narrators tells the reader everything they need to
know before they come to visit China. The author
tells them through these subtitles: water, what are
you going to do?, people of china, three is a family,
big cities, at home on the farm, getting around,
historically speaking, the common language, some
real characters, values and beliefs, celebrate, school
days. Novels and folktales, what to wear, games and
leisure, pins and needles, the food of China, mmm
Good! The book focuses on what visitors need to
know about the Chinese culture. Student s can
learn a lot of information in the book through the
short sublets. Each section is not very long, but they
contain a lot of information.
Age: 2nd grade
Publisher: Philomel Books. NY. 1989.
Map: Ed Young, author, was born in
Tientsin
Summary: The story of Lo Po Po
derived from the European tale of
Little Red Riding Hood. The story is
about three children, Shang, Tao, and
Paotze, and their adventures with a
wolf that comes to visit their home.
The wolf visits the children dressed
up as their grandmother. The
children’s mother went to visit the
grandmother, so the children are
skeptical when the wolf arrives
dressed as their grandmother.
However, the wolf tricks the children
into letting him in by telling them
excuses to why his face is so hairy,
and his voice is so low. After the
children let him in, the wolf blows out
the candle and they know something
is wrong. The children run outside
and climb a tree full of gingko nuts.
The wolf stands below the tree and
sees the children eating the nuts. He
begs them to give him some. The
children trick the wolf and it finally
ends when he falls from the tree and
breaks his heart into pieces. This is a
fun, traditional story that has cultural
Lon Po Po
By, Ed Young
The Story Of Kites
By, Yin Chang Compestine
Age: 3rd grade
Publisher: Holiday House, Inc.
NY. 2003.
Map: The author is from
Wuhon, China and the book
takes place in her village
there.
Summary: This is a folktale about
how the kite was made in China.This
is a story about three children who
are sick of chasing the birds away
from their parents’ rice fields. They
try multiple ways to keep the birds
away by throwing things into the air.
The children start to come on to
something when they attach their
homework onto chopsticks and throw
it up in the air. Then, the children try
to make wings to scare the bids off
with chicken feathers, but that doesn’t
work because they are too light.
The Story Of Kites Quotation
“ Since they make music like the
strings of the zheng as they fly
in the wind, I call them
fengzheng- wind zheng- kites.”
In-Depth Analysis: The Story of Kites
In the book, The Story of Kites, characterization is an important theme that takes the reader further into the book. There are three main
characters, Ting, Pan and Kuai that tell the story of the kite through their lifelike tale. All three characters develop through out the story in this
realistic fiction book. The book portrays these children as lifelike by their struggle to solve a problem. All three children have the same problem of
scaring off the birds in the rice fields and they struggle to come up with a way to do so. The children go through a trial and error period, until they
finally find something that works. The author reveilles the characters’ intelligence through their ability to find a solution to a problem, then teach
it to others to help the bigger problem. Although we know this is not a true story, the author makes the reader believe that it could be by making
the characters personable and relatable. The character, Pan, has an excerpt where he throws his homework into the air to scare the birds away.
He later says that he can not do this anymore because his teacher is getting upset with him. However he says, “But I love losing my homework,
especially math.” This quote makes Pan relatable to students that have a least favorite subject and tend not to like to do that homework first. The
author makes this character so relatable and life like.
Also, in this story, the setting plays a very important role. The setting, which is in China many years ago, gives the story its cultural feel
(mood). The setting sets the tone of the book, so that we know it is relaxed and child-friendly. When we view the illustrations of the setting, they
are inviting and we get the child-friendly mood. We can identify where the story takes place from the beginning of the story and from all of the
pictures in the book. You do not really know when the story takes place, but the book starts with “Long ago in China…” The setting of this book is
so important because it develops the characters in the story along with the plot. If you did not know where this story took place, there could be a
very different take on this book. The setting allows the students to make references to the characters about where they came from and their lives.
If we did not know about the setting of the rice fields in China, we would not be able to develop the characters who develop the kite.