Stepping Stones by Margaret Ruurs

Stepping Stones is a fantastic book to introduce into an inclusive classroom that has a student who comes from an Arabic background. This book is a dual language book---with English and Arabic side by side.

The story is told from a child's point of view. It is about a refugee family who lives peacefully and simply until a war afflicts their land. They are forced to flee with only those belongings that they can carry on their backs. They find refuge in America.

The illustrations are done using small stones to create pictures. My first thought for a lesson plan is after reading and discussing the book, to have students create a story of their own about a time in their own lives when they struggled with adversity. The students could write their own story and also create the same kind of rock art as in the book. To culminate the lesson it might be beneficial to compare and contrast the hardships that the refugee family endured to the hardships students describe.

This is a beautiful, poignant book that I would highly recommend for use in the classroom.

Take Heart, My Child by Ainsley Earhardt with illustrations by Jaime Kim

Take Heart, My Child by Ainsley Earhardt is a beautiful, dreamy picture book about a mother's love and dream for her child. The book's prose is clean and fresh. It repeats at certain intervals, making it easy for smaller children to follow along. The story offers up a mother's dreams for the future for the child and teaches good lessons such as being unique, not following the crowd, striving to be happy or changing course, and persevering. The illustrations, done by Jaime Kim, are dreamy and magic-like, matching the book's story perfectly. If the book does not win an award for the storyline, it should for the beautiful illustrations.

I would highly recommend this book for a classroom or home library. I imagine it will become a childhood favorite with its feeling of safety and childhood empowerment. It would be suitable for a kindergarten through third grade classroom, but I would think that this picture book might find room in a fourth or fifth grade classroom. It would definitely be appropriate for a child who was facing a loss of a parent.  A portion of the sales of this book is designated toward the Folds of Honor organization that provides scholarships and assistance to the families of America's fallen soldiers.