Tuesday, May 19, 2009

C.O.R.A Diversity Roll Call

This week Diversity Roll Call is being hosted by Ali over at Worducopia. In honor of Children's Book Week, we must choose a kids book, - "could be an old favorite you remember from your childhood, or a new one that just came out. Could be a comic book or fairy tale or a ghost story. Whatever strikes you. Did/does the world of the story match with your world? How do you think it contributes to a child's world view? Do the characters' looks, values, social status, reflect the diversity of our world? Would it change the meaning of the story if the characters were different?"
So I spent the first few days thinking about what book to choose. Growing up I don't remember there being picture books in the house. Though my dad was always reading, he kept a few NF titles in the house. He also read at least two newspapers a day. Usually the NYT and the Amsterdam News. So reading was such a natural thing to do. I finally decided to go with The Frog and Toad Treasury by Arnold Lobel. I just have warm memories about the Frog and Toad books. I always enjoyed what good friends they where to each other. Frog always thought of Toad first and vice versa. They also listened to each other. Sometimes when I hear other peoples conversations, I'll noticed a person isn't really listening but rather waiting for their turn to speak again. Frog and Toad could try new things without having to worry about being laughed at or feeling embarrassed. The Frog and Toad stories teach kindness and patience. They went for walks a lot probably because they were a frog and a toad. Still its nice to think child may want talk a walk or plant a garden, because they read a Frog and Toad story. Since the characters are animals I never associated them with a particular race. They were simply a frog and a toad. That's probably one of the things I enjoyed about the series growing up. Check out the books you can win for simply participating in C.O.R.A Diversity Roll Call or The Diversity Rocks Challenge If you win you'll get 5 books Look Free Books

5 comments:

Ali said...

Funny, I picked animal books, too, before reading your post.

I love Frog and Toad! I had a colleague who used to read those stories to high school students in her Outward Bound-type groups, because the lessons in those stories are lifelong.

Zetta Elliott said...

I LOVE Frog & Toad--I've even written haiku in their honor! My fave is the story where they're trying to stop eating cookies, so they hide them all over the place but can't stop indulging...great choice!

Summer said...

I remember Frog and Toad! good times

susan said...

Never read it.

Doret said...

Susan, like you since we didn't have picture books in the house growing up, I missed a lot of books.