Valentine's Day Crafts
Book Review: Sora and the Cloud
Disclosure: I was sent this book digitally to review free of charge from Immedium. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I am including links to each item for your convenience but do not receive anything if you purchase them.
Today we got almost a foot of snow. With all the cold, beautiful snow outside, I thought it was the perfect time to review this wonderful book by Felicia Hoshino called Sora and the Cloud. It is one of those wonderfully dreamy books that can never happen, but it is always so fun to think about happening.
This story is about a young Japanese boy exploring his world. Sora is a climber and one day he climbs a tree. Waiting in the branches of the tree is a friendly cloud. Sora hops on and the two become friends as they have an adventure. Throughout the story there are Japanese references such as food booths in a festival, kite flying and lyrics to a children's song about kites. The story has been translated into Japanese and both text are written on each page. After Sora returns to his family, his sister starts to check out the friendly cloud. It is an imaginative story about young children exploring and discovering the world around them.
Felicia Hoshino has illustrated many books and finally she writes and illustrates her own. It is beautifully illustrated and is the kind of book you can imagine a child daydreaming about. Add the Japanese culture throughout the book, and it is a wonderful introduction for any child. The book makes me smile. The story is simple yet fantasy and it makes it that wonderful mix that makes you happy to read.
The book is available for $15.95 at Immedium. It is a wonderful addition to anyone's multicultural library!
For some more multicultural children book reviews check out:
February Happenings: Paul Galdone, Canada and Black History Month
With the busy start of February, I have not had a chance to preview the month for you. February brings some added events such as Valentine's Day, Presidents Day and Black History Month. We have joined some other great members of Multicultural Kid Blogs to bring you the Black History Month Blog Hop. We have already shared posts on Thurgood Marshall and the song We Shall Overcome. For Valentine's Day we have shared a simple sewing project of a felt heart so far.
Another event coming up this month is:
Stay tuned for more reviews, giveaways and crafts!!
We Shall Overcome -- How a Song Affected the Civil Rights Movement
Do you know the song We Shall Overcome? Do you know its history with the Civil Rights Movement? I found some books to share it with Hazel. The song itself comes from an old gospel song, I'll Overcome Someday composed by Charles Albert Tindley. In 1945, workers were striking against the American Tobacco Company in Charleston, South Carolina, and the workers sang We'll Overcome (I'll Be All Right) to keep up their spirits. Their melody was closer to I'll Be All Right than to Tindley's version. In 1932 Highlander Folk School opened near Monteagle, Tennessee. Its purpose was to help unions in the South. In 1946 some members of the Charleston union came to Highlander and taught We Will Overcome to Zilphia Horton, Highlander's music director. That same year, Zilphia sang the song to Pete Seeger in New York. Pete Seeger had traveled with Woody Guthrie and later became a part of the folk group called the Weavers. Seeger altered the song to fit his own style of singing and changed the will to shall.
In the 1950s the focus of Highlander shifted from labor rights to civil rights. Many civil rights leaders attended training sessions including Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Reverend Ralph Abernathy.
At an anniversary event for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Pete Seeger sang We Shall Overcome. It was the first time Dr. King heard the song and later found himself humming the tune. We Shall Overcome played a role in many important events of the civil rights movement like the March on Washington in 1963, the Freedom Riders and the Selma to Montgomery marches. At the famous, "I Have a Dream" speech, Joan Baez performed and sang We Shall Overcome.
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| Joan Baez 1963, Source: By Scherman, Rowland, U.S. Information Agency. Press and Publications Service. (ca. 1953 - ca. 1978) (NARA - ARC Identifier: 542017) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
To share this song with Hazel, I found two books at the library. The first, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy, is the one I read to Hazel. It is a picture book with much information about the song as well as the lyrics throughout it. It tells how the students at sit-ins sang We Shall Overcome while being abused by the white patrons of the restaurants as well as throughout the movement.
The second book, We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World by Stuart Stotts, is more of a resource book for older children. It gives more history and much less pictures. I used it as a reference for this post. It did come with a CD with Pete Seeger singing We Shall Overcome on it.
The best part of this song is that it traveled the world and was sung in other countries like India, East Germany, South Korea, and the list goes on.
Resources for this post: Wikipedia, We Shall Overcome: A Song That Changed the World by Stuart Stotts, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song by Debbie Levy, and YouTube
Like my post last week on Thurgood Marshall, I will be adding this to the Multicultural Kid Blogs Black History Month Blog Hop. Feel free to add your own posts on the Civil Rights Movement to the hop!
Sewing Lesson: Felt Heart
Hazel received a gift card (well actually several) for her birthday. With one of them she bought a children's sewing machine. She has really wanted a sewing machine since I sew so much.Her little sewing machine does a chain stitch and if you are not careful you can pull all the stitches out when you remove the fabric from the machine, but she loves it!
She has been practicing on scraps of fabric I have given her, but I wanted to find some simple project where she could actually make something. I found one on Pinterest. The website it comes from is in an Asian language, but the pictures were enough for me to figure it out. To make some simple felt hearts you need a piece of felt, a sewing machine and some scissors.
- Taking a piece of felt, fold it in half the long way (if you want you can cut it in half the long way--I found I liked just folding it).
- Stitch close the fold.
- Unfold the felt and fold it over your stitches (so the stitches are inside the fold).
- Stitch close the cut edge.
- Cut your felt into "strips". Each strip is a heart.
- Now you can hand sew them to be a wreath or a garland. The site I got this from used wool felted balls in between hearts for the garland. You could also use other large beads.
For some more Valentine's Day Ideas check out:
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