Somos un arco iris/We Are A Rainbow
Nancy Maria Grande Tabor
Nancy is the author of several bilingual books for Charlesbridge, including El gusto del Mercado Mexicano/A Taste of the Mexican Market, Somos un Arcos Iris/We Are A Rainbow, Cincuenta en la Cebra/Fifty on the Zebra, and Albertina anda Arriba/Albertina Goes Up.
Nancy is a bilingual teacher in Sonoma, California. She often speaks at schools, libraries, and conferences to emphasize the need for language-rich books in Spanish. She stresses the importance of understanding other cultures and the reflection of culture through literature in both her presentations and her books.
Read more about Nancy.
BayViews
Using very simple cut-paper art, the author-illustrator explores what can happen when someone goes from one country to another. There a re new faces and places and sometimes the climate, plants, customs, food, and people's skin color can be different, too. When our words differ and we cannot understand one another, people sometimes feel bad, fight, and hurt one another. The author urges the listener to stop and think, "Are we really as different as we think?" With the simple analogy of the benefit the sun and the rain bring to flowers, she suggests that we use our tears and smiles to help friendship grow because friendships, like rainbows, are for everyone. A very simply written and effective book to help young children understand and accept their cultural differences. Would be wonderful to initiate discussions in primary classes in every elementary school.
Yellow Brick Road
The cut-paper art showing paper dolls in rainbow hues and many shapes emphasizes the pluralistic message in this book. The Spanish and English text says, "We are moving to a new country," explores likenesses and differences and affirms, "We really are so much the same." The book is equally useful in the classroom and the home.
Literary Lagniappe
Moving to a new place, a place that is very different from where you come from, can be a very scary experience, especially for a child. We Are a Rainbow explores the feelings and experiences of a child who is moving to a new country. The new place is very different, with different cultures and customs. The book encourages children to acknowledge and accept the differences of people. It explains that not all people are the same but we all have feelings, and we all live under the same sun with the same rainbow shinging on all of us no matter where we are born.
Paperback
ISBN: 978-0-88106-813-9
Ages: 3-6
Page count: 32
8 x 10