Sunday, October 12, 2014

"Whoever You Are" by Mem Fox


 "Whoever You Are" by Mem Fox

Summary

The book "Whoever You Are," was written by Mem Fox and illustrated by Leslie Staub. It was published in 1997. The beginning of the book shows different people for around the world and discusses differences. The book starts out with, "Little one, wherever you are, wherever you go, there are little ones just like you all over the world." Next the book explains, "their skin may be different, their schools may be different, their words may be different..."  After the book points out differences, it points out similarities, such as "their smiles are the same as yours, their tears are the same as yours, joy, pain, laughter..." The book ends with, "joy, love, pain, blood, smiles, and hearts are the same wherever you've been, wherever you are, and wherever you will be, whoever you are." The illustrations show lots of diversity and very colorful.


Analysis

The book is aimed toward children. The illustrations and images are easy to understand. The illustrations show characters "outside the mainstream culture" depicted as individuals and exaggerates the characteristics using caricatures. Th illustrations effectively shows different skin colors, and children from around the world. As the author explores differences in the first part of the book, she does not go into too much depth on the differences or give significant cultural information. I feel this would be a good starter book to introduce awareness of different cultures and diversity without confusing children. The person who has the power and wisdom in the book is "the man in the sky" who is taking the reader on a journey throughout the world. He uses this power and wisdom to point out differences, as well as similarities. The reader gets a look at different lands, schools, etc. The author is a white women who was born in Australia and moved to Zimbabwe when she was six months old. During this time, she was forced to leave the school with her friends and attend an all white school. Mem says that after being moved from her school and friends, she felt different and embarrassed for the first time. The book does not represent one specific culture or race, but instead briefly discusses differences and similarities. It does not give very much cultural information but seems like a good beginners book to introduce the children to diversity as well unity.

 About the Author

 

Mem Fox was born in Melbourne, Australia in 1946. When she was only six months old, she moved to Africa with her family. Mem was the only white student in her class when she started school. She learned that a persons skin color does not define them or make them better than anyone else. In the early fifties in Zimbabwe white children weren’t allowed to go to school with black children. The authorities found out that Mem was at the mission school and told her parents to remove her immediately and send her to a white school. Mem said, "For the first time in my life I felt different from them. And utterly miserable. I’d never felt different before. It was embarrassing (http://memfox.com/gossip-behind-mems-books/whoever-you-are-illustrated-by-leslie-staub/)."
According to Mem, she came from a pacifist family who believed that tolerance is one of the great virtues, and that all people are equal and worthy of human rights and human dignity. It really resignated with her when she read a shocking piece in the newspaper about the war in Bosnia and the inhumanity of an 18 year old girl against a boy of the same age who had been her classmate only weeks before. She had become an animal in war and saw ‘enemies’ where she should have seen humans, friends, who were just like her. Mem thought, “We have to get to the children, while they’re young. Teach them about the similarities between the peoples of the world, not the differences.” I imagined a tribal elder talking to a child, passing on the values of the tribe. The story-poem began to emerge."


 Activities to Expand on the Topic of Diversity

As you are reading the story, you can ask the children questions such as, "What can we tell about these children from the pictures?" Do you notice any children who look like you? What is that long white thing they are using to write on at school?" As you are reflecting on the story, encourage the children to talk about their differences as well as similarities. You can make a graph about hair, eye color, etc. You could also set up skin color paint and mirrors at the table and encourage children to make self portraits. 

Works Cited

Fox, M. (1997). Whoever You Are. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.


Fox, M. (n.d.). Whoever You Are. Retrieved October 12, 2014, from http://memfox.com/gossip-behind-mems-books/whoever-you-are-illustrated-by-leslie-staub/

11 comments:

  1. "Whoever You Are" is in our preschool theme book basket all year long, no matter what the theme is. I absolutely LOVE this book. I think every child and adult need to read this book as a reminder of humanity! I love that it teaches a wonderful message of unity. Thank you for sharing activities to expand the topic of diversity, those questions are worth writing down and sharing with my preschoolers. I love when art (painting) and math (graphing) can be involved just by reading a simple story! Also, I like how much information you shared about Mem Fox! We can tell that she has a strong passion for her writing. I feel like her writing style also encourages reading development!

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  2. Fantastic Book Choice!
    I enjoyed reading about the author's personal story and her belief on the importance of teaching children to not only notice differences but to understand their similarities. It was great to learn that "Whoever You Are" is a book that can begin the exploration of differences as well as finding similarities. The page you shared from the book that mentions some of the differences left me wondering what some of the similarities the book may have mentioned. Because of Author's focus on similarities, mentioning what some of them were would have been helpful.

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  3. I think this sounds like such a simple & cute way to begin to introduce culture in to a classroom, especially one that doesn't have much diversity to it. The illustrations don't seem to be completely over done and cheesy, which I feel is a good start for introducing this type of lesson to a class. I find it fascinating that the author has had quite the first hand experience of being treated differently because of her skin color. Even in Africa, segregation was happening, and I think that it is great she used her own experiences and builds on that as part of her life today.

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  4. I love how the author didn't show any bias in her book. I also love the fact that she had applied her own life experiences into writing the story. I think you chose a great story that shows that though people may look different we are all people. Great job.

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  5. What a wonderful story you chose and great analysis to go with it. This sounds like a great book for people of all ages to read. The illustrations look beautiful and it sounds like the author delivers an important message regarding the importance of cultural diversity and acceptance. I think that it is very cool that Mem Fox was able to create a story out of her own experience and I am guessing that it makes the story very relatable. This definitely made we want to read this book!

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  6. This book looks like a great story to read to children. Looks like a great learning tool to use. When I was at the book store looking for a book I came across so many great books and this was not even one I seen, I'm just so surprised on how many different books are out there. What a great assignment this was. You made me want to read the book, Thank you

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  7. What an awesome book! I totally loved this book. I would like to read this book for children to teach races and differences. I love the quotes in your analysis; "their skin may be different, their schools may be different, their words may be different..." and "their smiles are the same as yours, their tears are the same as yours, joy, pain, laughter..." What an amazing! I really would like to read this book. Thank you so much for sharing and great choice!

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  8. I absolutely love the book you have shared. The quote from book that stuck with me is "Little one, wherever you are, wherever you go, there are little ones just like you all over the world". I love how the book shows different cultures, skin tones around the world. It is great example to young ones that is important to have love for everyone. This book also attracted me with author because her main motive was war in Bosnia. This book I can feel, because I was there when the war in Bosnia happened and I know how much children suffered and had to avoid their best friends and act inhumanly to each other. I am glad that this book can bring many cultural differences together,that's the beauty of this world.

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  9. Great analysis and thank you for sharing this book. I need to pick this book up for the daycare I work in. A program we are with monitors to make sure we have enough culture/diversity intermixed in our classroom toys, I think this book would be perfect!

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  10. love this! it would be a great opener to a culture study in a school. I love how simple and poetic it is! thanks for a writing a great, informative analysis!

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  11. Great analysis! I love how this book was not biased and it seems like a great book for children! I would definitely read this one!

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