10 Ethnic Books : Stories Help Kids Understand Other Cultures

For children, reading books about other cultures can be the first step on the journey to understanding the young from around the world.

“Such armchair traveling,” says Sherrill Van Sickle, children’s librarian at the Encino-Tarzana Branch of the Los Angeles Public Library, “lets children experience life styles of people they may never have a chance to visit.”

Ethnic books, adds Darlene Daniels, owner of Pages, Books for Children and Young Adults in Tarzana, make children aware of another way of life.

The following is a diverse selection to help acquaint your child with people who are from different cultures, yet in many ways are the same.

“The House of Dies Drear” by Virginia Hamilton, illustrations by Eros Keith (Macmillan Publishing Co.).

A contemporary black family moves from North Carolina to Ohio, to a house that was once a station on the Underground Railroad. Thirteen-year- old Thomas is filled with trepidation. The house, selected by his father, a teacher of black history, is a maze of mysterious corridors. There are ghosts too.

A suspenseful novel, it depicts how former owner abolitionist Dies Drear helped slaves travel from the South through the North and on to Canada. It also recounts how some slaves volunteered to be recaptured, so they could help other slaves escape. For Thomas, the house becomes an historic link that connects him to the past of his people. For ages 11 and up.

“In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson” by Bette Bao Lord, illustrations by Marc Simont (Harper and Row).

Sixth Cousin, sometimes known as Bandit, and her mother leave their closely knit Chinese relatives to join her father in faraway Brooklyn, N.Y. She changes her name to Shirley Temple and speaks English, but isn’t accepted by her schoolmates until she learns about baseball and emulates her hero, the Dodger’s famed Jackie Robinson, by hitting a home run for her class’s team.

In the new year (of the Boar), Shirley looks forward to not only teaching her new baby brother how to chew gum, smack a homer and skate backwards, but also about life in China. The anxieties of a child in a new school are related to this immigrant’s efforts to assimilate in a strange society. For children 8-12.

“Grandma’s Gun” by Patricia Miles Martin, illustrated by Robert Corey (Golden Gate Junior Books).

In 1846, Juan, a small boy, worries that the United States will march into what is now California and capture the Pueblo de Los Angeles from Mexico and everything will change. Based on a true incident, the story concludes with Juan’s perception that even though the United States flag is up, the mission bells will still ring and the Mexican guitars will still play the music he loves. Ages 7-9.

“A Family in Egypt” by Olivia Bennett, photographs by Liba Taylor (Lerner Publications Co.).

Ten-year-old Ezzat lives in a land that is mostly desert. Water for cooking, washing and drinking comes from the river. His father is a camel driver, and many of his neighbors go to work on bicycles or donkeys. The roofs of houses are flat and are used to store food, firewood, animal fodder, fertilizer.

While many of his customs are different from ours, Ezzat is like a lot of American children. He likes to play soccer and watch TV. He also feeds his pet before he goes to school; however, in his case, the animal is a goat. Descriptions of farming, trading and family life plus photographs and maps make this book a research tool for any child giving a report on the life of an Egyptian family. Ages 9-12.

“The Changing Eskimo” by Gerald Newman (Franklin Watts).

Most children think of Eskimos as those quaint people who live in igloos. Today, only those in the farthest north build the ice-block igloos. Most live in stone or wood homes called “innies” spread with sod made of grass and soil. To keep out the cold, there is a long tunnel entrance closed with an animal-skin door.

Wearing jeans and wool shirts under fur parkas, riding snowmobiles for fast transportation across snow and playing basketball and football games in school, the Eskimos today are becoming more like the rest of the world, but this book points out the importance of an individual’s heritage. For children 8-11.

“Growing Up in France” by Sabra Holbrook with photographs by Nancee Fennessey and Thomas Wile (Atheneum).

Laetitia, Veronique, Antoine and Dominique--French children from different sections of the country--are presented in their homes, schools and on vacation. How do their lives differ from that of an American child?

Outside of the large cities, everything stops during the long lunch hour. They hold forks in their right hand, and never shift to the left as Americans do.

There are similarities too. In France, children watch TV, swim, play tennis and look forward to the end of school and to trips, usually during August, with their families. The French words liberally sprinkled throughout the text may seem foreign and the French children’s lives exotic, but the smiles in the photographs link the worlds. For children 8-11.

“Greek Island Boy,” story and photographs by Peter Buckley (Viking Press).

When Dimitrios, a Mykonos boy, sails with his father and friends to other islands, he learns some important lessons. First, how to help his father at sea. Then, when they visit places now in ruins, he realizes that those who once lived there can never die as long as memories of what they passed on are retained, just as his education about sailing is being passed down to him. The thought, “one civilization is father to the next,” reinforces his pride in his heritage. That we can all learn from each other is a philosophy to enrich any child’s life. For junior high children.

“Remembrance of the Sun” by Kate Gilmore (Houghton Mifflin Co.).

In 1977-78, a 17-year-old American girl is in her senior year of high school in Iran. The novel tells of her growing love for Shaheen, who plays the French horn, as she does, in the school band. She gets caught up in his dreams of freedom for Iran. But it is the time of the Shah and before the disillusionment with the Ayatollah. The revolution is coming; her father loses his job; the family must return to the United States. And she must say goodby to Shaheen. For young adults.

“How My Parents Learned to Eat” by Ina Friedman, illustrated by Allen Say (Houghton Mifflin Co.).

Mother was a Japanese schoolgirl. Father was an American sailor. They fell in love and wanted to marry, but their cultural differences seemed insurmountable. The daughter of this couple relates the tales of her father’s humorous attempts to eat sukiyaki and tofu with chopsticks and her mother’s problems using a fork and learning to shake hands instead of bowing.

“Now,” the child explains, “. . . at our house some days we use chopsticks and some days we eat with knives and forks.” The colorful illustrations and simple text demonstrate how people adjust to other cultures. For children 5-8.

“Endless Steppe” by Esther Hautzig (Thomas Y. Crowell Co.).

In June, 1941, 10-year-old Esther and her family are deported from Poland to Siberia. Their rich, beautiful Jewish life vanishes as they are exposed to the rigors of slave labor, the cruelties of weather and incessant hunger. Finally she gets to go to school. Underneath, she has the same need every growing child has--to be accepted by her schoolmates.

Siberia has some surprising pluses, such as a library. Even the vast solitude of the steppes becomes a background against which Esther can think and dream. When their exile is over, Esther discovers her “war,” while filled with deprivation, did not come with death as it did for her other relatives captured by the Nazis. For junior highand up.