Isla

Isla by Arthur Dorros

Multicultural

This is a story about a small girl named Rosalba and her Abuela, or grandmother. Using their imaginations, they fly to la isla (the island) where Abuela grew up. They meet relatives, visit the rain forest, go to the market, and swim in the ocean- all the while speaking in Spanish. They fly back to New York City, and can't wait for the next time they visit their isla.

I think this book would be great to promote diversity, specifically knowledge of Hispanic cultures. The book uses lots of phrases in Spanish (with a glossary of terms in the back) and I think it would be neat to have students who speak Spanish fluently come up with some everyday terms of their own to share with the class that we can all use in our vocabulary. It would also be great to have Hispanic students talk about where their own families are from and segue into a discussion on the ancestry and history of all the students in the class and Americans as a group.