Debra Leventhal

I liked reading this book and think it can be a great tool to use in the classroom. I love that not only can it be read to a class but it can also be sung. This adds more variety to how you can use the book to teach. A great part of the book is the repetition. Every page starts out with "What is your language? Please tell me now." Then the children say their language and how to say yes. Having this phrase repeated helps students follow along since they recognize a pattern.
This is also a great way to begin to introduce many different languages. It only gives you one word in each language but the illustrations take it to a much deeper level. Each time a new language is brought up there a drawings that represent where that language is spoken. It shows how the people there dress and what they spend their time doing. Even the inside covers show a map of the world which hints to the children that this book is not just going to be about one place.
This book shows the importance of learning other languages and how it can help you get to know someone if they speak another language. Also, the illustrations show how people are going to be different but that doesn't mean they can't get along. This book is all about learning new things and being able to accept people for who they are.… (más)

What is your language is a neat little book that is about a little boy that takes a trip around the world and stops at different places. While he is at these different places he meets a friend that teaches him the word "hello" in their native language. This book is a great multicultural book that teaches children different ways to say hello. It is simple enough but yet encouraging by have the different ways to say hello, in a song. There were a variety of languages that were explored during the little boys trip such as Spanish, Chinese, Swahili, Arabic, Japanese, Inuktitut, Russian, French, German, and English. Not only was the text of substance but the pictures corresponded greatly to the text. Each of the children that he met were wearing their traditional clothing which was also a lesson for children. For example, on the page that is about Eskimos there is snow, igloos, snow dogs, and a man on a sled.This text is a very resourceful one because a child never knows who they will meet and this book teaches them them a basic word that they can use to speak to someone from a different culture. Not only did this book teach the word yes, it also taught the word "no" as well. And at the end of the book they listed the lyrics for a song that children can learn to help them with saying hello in different languages. This book is important because it helps to create a since of diversity. I completely like this book and would recommend it in a classroom and would like to have it in my classroom for a quick teaching on different cultures.… (más)