I really enjoyed this book! It's a great resource for anyone to learn about families in South Africa. In the library, I saw books similar to this one but with different countries. This allows students to compare and contrast their family life to families in different countries. This book also enables students to learn about that country. On every other page, there was a random fact about the country in a big yellow box. For example, one box said "Until 1994, only white skinned people had a say in how the country was run. Now everyone can vote. The country has a new government and a black president, Nelson Mandela." Overall, I believe this is a great resource to enhance students' learning! The central message in this book is family.

Summary: This book describes the Qampie family. The author included multiple pictures of the family, their home, and their various activities that they participate in. The book describes the Qampie's family members, their home, their furniture, where they sleep, what they eat, their jobs, school, and their hobbies. ( )

Summary:

The book is a biography/informational text that explores the life of the Qampie family from South Africa. The book offers geographical information about South Africa as well as personal information looking at the culture and customs of the Qampie family. The Qampie family has a household size of eight people that consists of a father and mother with three children, the mother’s sister and her son and the grandmother. They live in a small town named Soweto, which stands for South Western Townships. It is a group of townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg, which is at a population of one million. The town offers two swimming pools, movie theaters, and a few parks. The family lives and works in the town and makes a household income of $2,543.00 a year. This book explores their life at home, work, in school, in the community and in their future.

Comments (opinions/arguments):

This book offers so much information on family life in South Africa. It also gives a lot of geographical information on the town and different areas of South Africa. I really loved all of the wonderful real life pictures that were incorporated to really give the reader a sense of what life is like for the Qampie family. I think this book is great for children to learn about different families and cultures around the world. This book could be seen as both a biography and informational text because it tells a story about a real family, but also offers a lot of information on South Africa and its culture. I really like that the book has an introduction on South Africa and a separate introduction on the Qampie family. It also offers a table of contents because each page covers a different topic of interest. It also incorporates a glossary of terms that are related to African culture. I think this is great because some children might not know what ‘Afrikaans’ or ‘Xhosa’ mean. The glossary can help students become familiar with new words that pertain to this culture. It also has a pronunciation guide to help students pronounce the different areas of South Africa correctly. Overall this book is a great resource for learning about culture in South Africa. ( )