by Patricia Polacco
When I was assigned this multicultural blog assignment, I wanted to use a Coretta Scott King Award winning book. This award is named after Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, Coretta Scott King. It recognizes outstanding African American authors and illustrators. The book must be about the African American experience, and must be written for a youth audience. When I went to Barnes and Noble to find a book, I was having trouble because I was specifically looking for Coretta Scott King Award winners. After some time, I asked one of the employees for help. He couldn't help me find and away winner but he informed me that Chicken Sunday, by Patricia Polacco is an excellent multicultural book. Once I read the first few pages, I agreed with him. It is now one of my favorite childrens books.
Chicken Sunday is about three children. The narrator, in my opinion, is based on Patricia Polacco. The narrator has two neighbors who are African American. They spend a lot of time together. The narrator also spends a lot of time with the two boys' grandmother, Miss Eula. She learns a lot about their culture from Miss Eula. She attends church with the family and she eats 'chicken dinner' with them on Sundays. Throughout the story, Polacco talks about two other nationalities. The narrator shares her traditions of coloring eggs with her 'Babushka" in the story. There is also a man named Mr. Kodinski. He is German and he owns a hat store. The children work at his store selling the eggs they painted to buy Miss Eula a hat. While they work with him, he teaches them about his nationality as well, and he even teaches them a few words from his language.
This story is an excellent multicultural story for many reasons. One reason is that it explains more than one ethnicity. It teaches about three nationalities and their traditions, while telling a nice children's story. This story is also important for children because it shows how all of the children, and adults, in the story are of different backgrounds, but they are all related. The children are best friends, the families interact, and they all teach each other. Without each other, life would not be as interesting. That is an important lesson for children to understand. This story portrays how significant traditions are. They last within families and they are shared with others.
In my opinion, Chicken Sunday would be a Coretta Scott King Award winner, but Patricia Polacco is not an African American author. It is about the African American experience, being that three of the main characters are African American. It also explains traditions of the African American culture. Although it is not a winner it is still an excellent story and I would recommend it to the world.
Kaitlin,
ReplyDeleteJust like you I found myself looking for Coretta Scott Kings books at the book store. Although I couldn’t find one myself I decided to use a multicultural based book by Mem Fox. I was intrigued to see that you chose a Patricia Polacco book, since she is the author I will be researching for our author study. I have read several of her books and I am never disappointed with her quality of stories. Every time I read one of her stories it makes me want to read and learn more about her.
Although I have read some of her books, “Chicken Sunday”, is one that I have not read. As I read through your blog I enjoyed the brief summary you gave regarding the story. The amount of information given was just right because it made me want to get the book at read it in its entirety. In addition, I like how you described how it was an excellent multicultural story for many different reasons. It was nice to see a story like this integrate and explain more than one ethnicity. This can be beneficial in a classroom because it discusses three nationalist and the traditions.
Finally, I liked how you pointed out that it shows how all of the children, and adults, in the story are of different backgrounds, but they are all related. I couldn’t agree more with this statement because children need to understand and realize that without each other, life would not be as fascinating.