St. Patrick's Day

Multicultural Picture Book
Title: St. Patrick's Day
Author: Anne Rockwell
Age Level: 3-6

Summary
This story told the tale of students in Mrs. Madoff's learning about St. Patrick's Day.  The story covers many Irish tales and traditions and who St. Patrick really was and his adventures he had.

Opinion
This particular book was a mirror book for me because I am Irish and am very familiar with many of the Irish traditions and tales.  My grandparents are from Ireland so growing up I would always hear stories about life back in Ireland and how beautiful it is. I thought that this book was a culturally conscious book because it portrayed many traditions that Irish people find important and relevent to their own background and ancestry.  This book showed girls Irish dancing and I was easily able to relate to this because I was an Irish dancer for five years while growing up.  Some people may not have even heard of Irish dancing or what the significance of Irish dancing is.  I think that this book is a great book for children because it talks about the roots behind St. Patricks Day and what all is involved in this holiday.  In my opinion, it is fun learning about holidays that you may not understand completely or relate to and I think that children will find this interesting as well.  This book deals with the concrete level of culture as well as the symbolic because topics such as music and clothing are talked about as well as the customs and beliefs that are behind the holiday.

This is a great multicultural book to have in the classroom so that kids are able to learn about different holidays and traditions that they may not be familiar with.  I would definitly bring this book out around the time of St. Patricks Day because I think children will enjoy hearing the tales and traditions behind the holiday.