Suki's Kimono
Author: Chieri Uegaki
Illustrator: Stephane Jorisch
Kids Can Press (2003)
Books can make a difference in dispelling prejudice and building community: not with role models and literal recipes, not with noble messages about the human family, but with enthralling stories that make us imagine the lives of others. A good story lets you know people as individuals in all their particularity and conflict; and once you see someone as a person---flawed, complex, striving--then you've reached beyond stereotype. Stories, writing them, telling them, sharing them, transforming them, enrich us and connect us and help us know each other.
Hazel Rochman, Against Borders: Promoting Books for a Multicultrual World (Chicago: Booklist Publications/American Library Association Books 1993) pp. 9,19
Quoted in Children and Books: Ninth Edition by Zena Sutherland
We have a storytime hour at our local book shop. The storyteller is a wonderful young man who always picks amazing books about diversity.
It is my hope to introduce Mirette to many different cultures and ways of life. I want to travel as a family and pass on my love of adventure. For me, that includes meeting people from all walks of life.
Suki's Kimono is a great story about a girl who insists upon wearing her kimono to the first day of school. Her sister and classmates make fun of her, but she sticks to her convictions and wins the class over!
The author, ChieriUegaki, is a second generations Japanese-Canadian. The book is about her relationship with her grandmother. This is her first children's book. I don't know about you, but I can't wait to read more!
The most interesting tid-bits about Stephane Jorisch is that he is a man (I thought he was a woman) and also that he designed sets for Cirque de Soleil.
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