Children’s Books Critique Jennifer Harding Ivy Tech Community College

INTASTC Standard, Description, and Rationale Standard #: 2 Name of Artifact: Children’s Book Critique Date: March 1 st, 2015 Class: Multicultural Education Description: For this assignment I looked over three children’s books. After doing so I was given the task of analyzing these books based on how they show multicultural experiences. Once I have made the analysis I will compare the three given books. Rationale: To document my understanding of standard 2, I showed this by analyzing various backgrounds. With each story a different set of characters is given and I had to compare them. This showed the differences between each group as well as the similarities. Once these are found the teacher is able to embrace them.

Book 1 Title: Mergers Author: Steven L. Layne Publisher: Pelican Publishing Company Copyright Date: 2006 The ruler of a futuristic world is setting out to remove all traces of ethnicities. A group of diverse teenagers with super powers know they cannot fight him. Instead they go into the past and try to stop this man before he is able to merge all ethnicities into one.

Book 2 Title: Harry Potter and The Chamber of Secrets Author: J.K. Rowling Publisher: Scholastic Inc. Copyright Date: 1999 In the second installment of the Harry Potter series our main character comes back to Hogwarts. His school is faced with a set of students who are being put into comas. He has to work with his friends to figure out how to stop the beast doing this. If he does not stop the beast the students will have to leave school.

Book 3 Title: The Titan’s Curse Author: Rick Riordan Publisher: Hyperion Books Copyright Date: 2007 The hero of the beloved Percy Jackson series is back again in the book the Titan’s curse. Here his close friend Grover is kidnapped and Percy must rush to save him. Along the way he meets other children that like him are demi-gods who could be the key to stopping the evil Kronos.

Pros and Cons Book Two Pros- Working together is put in emphasis Jobs are not determined by gender (ex. Males as teachers) Cons- Fighting between various groups is constant Very few females of importance Very little diversity in ethnicity Book Three Pros- Equal numbers of male and female main characters Many diverse backgrounds of characters Cons- Minimal racial diversity Book One Pros- A diverse group of teenagers Working together to stop the melting pot idea No racial stereotypes are prevalent Cons- Mostly male leadership Females doing mostly what is considered feminine work (cooking, cleaning, taking care of the boys)

Characters In Charge MALE Book 1: 3 Characters Book 2: 6 Characters Book 3: 2 Characters FEMALE Book 1: 2 Characters Book 2: 3 Characters Book 3: 1 Character

Activities Done By Characters Book One A male is the leader of where they life A male takes lead of the group A female cooks dinner A female saves the male characters Book 3 The school is lead by a male principal The male lead does most of the fighting A female older sister is highly protective the entire time A female saves the male lead and his best friend. Book Two A male runs the entire school A male is the stupid yet handsome celebrity A female is considered bossy for taking charge A female is kidnapped and saved by a male character

Illustrations Book One Includes all four main characters equally Shows their faces to show diversity in their friend group Two males (one Hispanic and one Caucasian) Two females (one African American and one Asian) Book Two Shows the outline of the main male character and a winged horse Book Two Only shows the male lead and a phoenix

Book 1 I believe that book one is a multicultural experience from the cover through the last page. They show a diverse group of teenagers who work together to stop an ethnicity related problem. With an equal number of male and female leads they truly make each character unique. While the jobs that are done are sometimes not the most diverse in the end they work together as a group to solve the problem.

Book 2 I believe that this book is a multicultural book because of how they show groups of people. They have the various houses as well as students who work together in many instances. The book does not earn points for its lack of ethnic diversity but I do still believe it works. In the end they make it known that you should never judge someone by the way they look. It also shows how important working together with others can be.

Book 3 I believe that like book 2 this book is multicultural because of its message. The message is that no matter who we are we can always find similarities. Those similarities can then find us friends in the places we would least expect. By teaching students to use their own strengths alongside those of other students it helps to show a multicultural experience in a new way.