NCCRESt

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Reading Materials

• 1998 Notable Books for a Global Society: A K-12 List
  Presents brief annotations of 25 outstanding books for children and young adults, published in 1997, that are culturally authentic, rich in cultural details, and that celebrate both diversity and the common bonds of humanity. (SR).
• A Multicultural Autobiographies Interdisciplinary Course
  Describes an interdisciplinary course on multicultural autobiographies that integrated psychology and literature, requiring students to examine primary texts using analytical tools from both disciplines. Addresses the outcomes and writing assignments, psychological and literary perspectives on autobiographical texts, the students' responses, and teaching observations.
• Book Browse: A Creative Approach to Meaningful Language Learning
  Describes one elementary teacher's use of the Book Browse literacy activity, which allows Spanish-speaking students to examine books informally in pairs or small groups. Book Browse provides a highly social situation where multiple conversations can occur among these children who need exposure to expressive language as they develop skills in both Spanish and English.
• Booktalking Across the Curriculum: The Middle Years
  This book contains booktalks for 170 titles that appeal to middle school readers and relate to middle school curriculum. Approximately 90% of the books are fiction.
• Carter G. Woodson Book Awards
  Presents the recipients of the 1999 Carter G. Woodson book awards that honor books focusing on ethnic minorities and race relations in a manner appropriate for young readers; the books cover topics that include the lives of Langston Hughes, Rosa Parks, and Ida B.
• Celebrating Heritage through Literature (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes ways to promote literacy and appreciation for heritage by celebrating the literacy contributions of authors of color, such as Heritage Readings and African American Read-Ins. Offers suggestions of favorite selections by Hispanic, African American, Native American, and Asian American authors.
• Celebrating Linguistic Diversity (Talking about Books)
  Offers brief annotations of 45 illustrated children's books that offer a vision of a linguistically rich world where language difference is a resource, not an obstacle. Groups the books in the following categories: codeswitching as authentic language; dual language texts; language and cultural traditions; alternate forms of communication; and personal and community voices.
• Censoring by Omission: Has the United States Progressed in Promoting Diversity through Children's Books?
  Examines the promotion of cultural diversity in the United States through childrens books. Discusses the scarcity of multicultural literature for children, ethnic folklore, racial bias in older books for children, new stereotypes in children's literature, political correctness, and ways to enhance access to quality multicultural literature.
• Children's Literature as a Springboard for Music
  Maintains that children's literature is a treasure waiting to be discovered by music educators. Describes how children's literature can enhance student motivation, creativity, and foster multicultural education.
• Culturally Diverse Library Collections for Youth
  This annotated bibliography of multicultural literature for secondary students is designed to help librarians broaden and diversify their print and video collections with materials written both for and about African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and Asian Americans. The materials included are intended for middle, junior high, and senior high school libraries as well as young adult collections in public libraries.
• Dissolving Borders and Broadening Perspectives through Latino Traditional Literature
  Offers a brief historical perspective on Latino folk literature. Discusses 26 recently published books for children and adolescents in both English and Spanish, organized into origin tales, tales based on historical facts, trickster tales, and cumulative tales.
• Diverse Learners, Diverse Texts: Exploring Identity and Difference through Literary Encounters
  Examines two urban 10th-grade English classes of ethnically diverse students in which the teachers diversified literature selections for newly designed ethnic literature curricula. Reports the texts students found most memorable and meaningful, and analyzes the values students found in their encounters with these literary works.
• Integrating Irish Children's Literature into a Multicultural Curriculum
  Examines ways in which children's literature reflecting the Irish can be effectively integrated into a multicultural curriculum. Uses J.
• Literary Collections (Children's Books)
  Presents brief annotations of 43 children's books first published in countries other the United States and Canada or in languages other than English. Presents them in three groups: British children's books; books first published in countries other the United States and translated into English; and books that are completely or partially bilingual.
• Mosaics (Children's Books)
  Presents brief annotations of 49 illustrated children's books, categorized into the following groupings: multicultures, odds and ends, solutions, animals, individuals, celebrations, and settings. (SR).
• Recommended Books for Young Readers about Latinos/as
  Reviews 15 recently published books that deal with the joys and struggles of Latino people. These fiction and nonfiction books deal with a variety of topics and are sure to hold the interest of young readers.
• Respond to Stories with Stories: Teachers Discuss Multicultural Children's Literature
  Describes a literature discussion group consisting of eleven social studies representatives involved in a discussion of children's multicultural literature and articles. Focuses on story as a resource for exploring diversity and for sharing personal experiences and responses with others.
• Teachers and Self-Esteem for Minorities
  Describes the results of a survey of 32 teachers of children with hearing impairments that found teachers wanted to know ways to help minority students develop self-esteem. A list of multicultural resources is provided, along with a recommending elementary reading list of multicultural readings.
• Tensions: Ten Great Books about Cultural Encounters
  Offers brief descriptions of 10 books for children and adolescents in which characters attempt to sort out the cultural conflicts that result when cultures meet. (SR).
• Victims, Heroes, and Just Plain Folks (Teaching and Learning about Cultural Diversity)
  Argues that multicultural education, if it is to be effective and meaningful, needs to be woven throughout the curriculum. Discusses 11 children's books that take into account the age and maturity level of students as they tell forthright stories of the victims, heroes, and just plain folks of the Holocaust, slavery, and the involuntary of assimilation of Native Americans.
• Who's New in Multicultural Literature Part Two (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes the Multicultural Project at a high school in Colorado that uses literature by people of color in the 11th-grade curriculum. Presents brief descriptions of four Latino/a and five Native American writers and their works.
• Who's New in Multicultural Literature, Part One (Rainbow Teachers/Rainbow Students)
  Describes how a multicultural unit was added to a high school American literature course, noting that this necessitated selecting a large number of new books for the school library. Discusses goals of the multicultural project and its main interpretive assignment.