Children's books and cultural impact

For this assignment I chose two books that I love to read to kids.  The first is Mooseltoe by Margie Palatini.  In this cute story of a moose family getting ready for Christmas there is humor and fun and a lesson of how important family is.  As I look at it now, I realize that the story may be hard for ELL students to comprehend because of certain aspects that aren't found in their culture.

• The first is that they may be unfamiliar with what a moose is.
• This story is centered around Christmas, so if they are from somewhere that doesn't celebrate Christmas, this will also put them at a disadvantage.
• Even in some cultures that do celebrate Christmas there are many aspects that may be more of an American Christmas celebration, such as the garland, tinsel, and jingle bells.
• The book also has a rhyming rhythm to it and could be difficult to understand if the student comes from a culture whose words don't take on that kind of rhythm.

The second story is If You Give A Mouse A Cookie by Laura Numeroff.  I love this story too and only now after looking at it through a different lens, can see that some aspects of the story might make comprehension difficult for our ELL students.

• The idea of eating cookies and milk as a snack is something that may not be familiar at all to students from a different culture.
• Using paper and crayons to just draw a picture is also something that students from other cultures may not have experienced.
• This book does have characters but doesn't necessarily follow a common story path with a beginning, middle, and end.  This pattern in the book might be unfamiliar to children from a different culture.  
• Some of the words and phrases might be unfamiliar and talking about items that they don't use in their culture, such as nail scissors, milk mustache, and refrigerator

Both of these stories are wonderful books with fun illustrations, but both books may need a lot of front-loading of vocabulary and traditions we have in our culture in order for our ELL students to comprehend the meaning of the texts.