A Birthday Basket for Tia by Pat Mora

Genre: general fiction

Publishing info: Simon & Schuster Books, 30 pages

Summary: This is a story about a little hispanic girl who is trying to find the best present for her great aunt. She decides to make a basket full of things that the two of them find special. She puts in their favorite book, a mixing bowl, a flowerpot and lots of other things. Throughout the story the author mixes english and spanish as the characters speak.

Personal rating: *** Good This story has pretty pictures and does a great job of showing the mexican culture.

Reading level: 2.4

Interest level: K-2

Integration: The teacher could use this book to read and talk about hispanic culture. The teacher could talk about how different cultures celebrate birthdays. Then the class could focus on the hispanic culture and study how they celebrate. The class could finish up by having a fiesta of their own by creating a pinata and having chips and salsa. The teacher could also invite any hispanic parents in who might want to share about their culture to the class.
In math this book counts by tens as the little girl counts up to how old her aunt is so the class could practice counting up by tens to ninety.

Potential problems: This book has some words that are native to the spanish language and may confuse children who are not familiar with spanish.