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As most of you know, at the end of the month I'm leaving for Australia with my dad and a class of his students to spend three weeks with an Aboriginal tribe. Here is an excerpt from a recent email he sent us all:
Dear All,
I received the following e-mail today from Denise Goodfellow, who will be leading us for the Arnhem Land section of our trip. Her relatives are the people who originally invited me to bring students to their clan area. They are very eager to meet you.
I have asked Denise to think of service projects we can do for them -- besides helping them learn to overcome their shyness and guide outsiders. She suggests
1) Helping the children learn to read. (Some do not.) To this end, I suggest that each of you bring a couple of good children's books that we can leave for them. Try to be aware that many books presume significant cultural knowledge that the children may not have. I've found a few good ones, though.
[snip]
So... I thought about what to get. I asked if Dr. Seuss would be good.
I got the Cat in the Hat and Horton Hatches an Egg at half-price books.
Other Dr. Seuss are fine, so long as they aren't totally culture-bound. I
decided that Blueberries for Sal was okay (they don't have bears in
Australia, but they do have other large creatures), and also The Giving Tree
and Where the Wild Things Are.
Later he said that probably Native American-themed books would fit the bill well.
I need suggestions. I'm sure others in the group will bring Dr. Seuss. I'm definitely getting Miss Rumphius, as I think it's a gorgeous book, and I was thinking too about Strega Nona or Goodnight Moon. My favorite children's book is Melisande so I may get that, even if I can't count on the kids having the cultural background to get that it's a departure from the usual prince-saves-princess fairy tale. Elsa Beskow's books are also gorgeous but tend to be more expensive, and at the moment I have only $126 to my name (plus a good deal in CDs where I can't access it but it's THERE, so that's why I'm not panicking). If you have any ideas of what books would be good, by all means I'd love to have them. I am woefully ignorant of Native American stories. And these are people who live hours away from what we know as "civilization", with none of the amenities or animals or TV references or food that we're used to, so something like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a little too culturally out of the kids' experience to understand well.
If you have any children's books you'd like to donate to the cause, send them to:
Zana Spickard
515 E Capitol St SE
Washington, DC 20003
You will have my everlasting thanks and appreciation.
Also, if you want to give me money to buy books, my PayPal account is janakirsk(at)hotmail(dot)com. I will let you know exactly how the money is spent. Children's books are expensive, so I'm looking at eBay but if anyone knows a better place...? I'll check out a few of the bookstores around here as well.
Dear All,
I received the following e-mail today from Denise Goodfellow, who will be leading us for the Arnhem Land section of our trip. Her relatives are the people who originally invited me to bring students to their clan area. They are very eager to meet you.
I have asked Denise to think of service projects we can do for them -- besides helping them learn to overcome their shyness and guide outsiders. She suggests
1) Helping the children learn to read. (Some do not.) To this end, I suggest that each of you bring a couple of good children's books that we can leave for them. Try to be aware that many books presume significant cultural knowledge that the children may not have. I've found a few good ones, though.
[snip]
So... I thought about what to get. I asked if Dr. Seuss would be good.
I got the Cat in the Hat and Horton Hatches an Egg at half-price books.
Other Dr. Seuss are fine, so long as they aren't totally culture-bound. I
decided that Blueberries for Sal was okay (they don't have bears in
Australia, but they do have other large creatures), and also The Giving Tree
and Where the Wild Things Are.
Later he said that probably Native American-themed books would fit the bill well.
I need suggestions. I'm sure others in the group will bring Dr. Seuss. I'm definitely getting Miss Rumphius, as I think it's a gorgeous book, and I was thinking too about Strega Nona or Goodnight Moon. My favorite children's book is Melisande so I may get that, even if I can't count on the kids having the cultural background to get that it's a departure from the usual prince-saves-princess fairy tale. Elsa Beskow's books are also gorgeous but tend to be more expensive, and at the moment I have only $126 to my name (plus a good deal in CDs where I can't access it but it's THERE, so that's why I'm not panicking). If you have any ideas of what books would be good, by all means I'd love to have them. I am woefully ignorant of Native American stories. And these are people who live hours away from what we know as "civilization", with none of the amenities or animals or TV references or food that we're used to, so something like Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a little too culturally out of the kids' experience to understand well.
If you have any children's books you'd like to donate to the cause, send them to:
Zana Spickard
515 E Capitol St SE
Washington, DC 20003
You will have my everlasting thanks and appreciation.
Also, if you want to give me money to buy books, my PayPal account is janakirsk(at)hotmail(dot)com. I will let you know exactly how the money is spent. Children's books are expensive, so I'm looking at eBay but if anyone knows a better place...? I'll check out a few of the bookstores around here as well.