Fran Manushkin is the author of many popular picture books for children. Tammy Lyon found her love for drawing while sitting at the kitchen table with her dad. She eventually attended Columbus College of Art & Design where she earned her Bachelor's degree in Fine Art.
Full-color illustrations augment every page, and the large font
size and white space make this a good bridge from early readers to
beginning chapter books. Katie Woo joins the growing ranks of books
featuring Asian American families in everyday situations. . .
.Katie's reactions to life's challenges will resonate with many
readers.-- "Booklist Online"
Growing up, I was an avid reader. I loved book series because they
gave you got to see your favorite characters grow. Today, when I'm
observing the books students choose to read and what they check out
from their school libraries, I'm struck by a major difference in
some of their popular fiction versus what I grew up reading. When I
was growing up, it was quite a task to find a book series featuring
a female protagonist who was not white. Ramona Quimby, Nancy Drew,
the Sweet Valley Twins, 95% of the Babysitter's Club, etc. were all
white. They are wonderful books and children from any race can read
and enjoy stories about these characters, but I wondered what young
black, Hispanic, Asian, and other races lost when they got few
chances to read books about characters that look like them. If any
race can read and love Ramona, shouldn't they all be given the
chance to read and relate to a black character, or an Asian one?
Why don't publishers make more of these books? Tough we are aware
of the reasons why it's important for students to read books like
this, there is still a paucity of books available that spotlight
racially diverse characters. Nevertheless, there are now a lot more
options for young readers. I love seeing girls with their noses in
books, and I was struck when I saw girls of all races reading two
series starring diverse female protagonists: Katie Woo and Dyamonde
Daniel . Katie Woo is an award-winning series for young readers.
Katie's series contains short sentences and nice illustrations for
students just beginning chapter books. Her covers are as vivid and
inviting as her stories! Katie is in first grade and she's had to
deal with the loss of a beloved pet, a bully and lying . I love
that likeable series features an Asian protagonist, though it is
sadly one of the few I've ever seen that does so. http:
//substitutesftw.blogspot.com/2011/06/diverse-book-series-for-young-readers.html--
"Substitutes, FTW! blog"
In this series Katie Woo is a perfect first experience in chapter
books for girls about 5-7 years old. The pages have colorful
pictures and at 90 pages they will get great exposure to a longer
chapter book they can read all on their own. Each page has at least
one colorful photo and contains about one to two paragraphs.
Perfect for my reluctant reader. . . .Adorable book and I love that
my daughter is being exposed to a different ethnicity and sees how
very much the same we all are. We may have different skin, hair
type or eyes but people are people. Plain and simple.-- "Maria's
Space blog"
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