Morgan+Reddig+Cultural+Homes

// Children’s Literature and Teacher Resources // ** Children’s Nonfiction­­ ** //__ Homes in Many Cultures __// by Heather Adamson This book starts off by talking about different places to live like big, small, flat or tall homes and briefly describes the safety of a home. Then the book goes into different types of homes covering cabins, huts, adobe homes, houses on stilts, and houseboats. There are brief explanations of the houses and why they are made the way they are. The pictures are real life photos that are large and colorful giving students a good example of different homes. The book starts talking about the city and country and what kinds of homes would be in those areas. In the end the book it gives the opportunity to have students talk about their home and what it may look like. This is a good book to start a unit plan on cultural homes. It covers many different types of homes all around the world and shows you where some of those homes might be. Teachers can then talk about each type of house in this book over the course of the unit plan. Adamson, Heather. (2008) //__Homes in Many Cultures__//. Capestone Press. 24. Tempe Public Library.
 * A Bibliography on Homes in Different Cultures **

//__ If You Lived Here __// by Giles Laroche This book provides readers with the opportunity to step into homes from around the world and discover the many fascinating ways people have lived and still live today. In this book there are many different homes but what is interesting is the reason why each home was constructed the way that it was. Some homes were built to confuse invaders while others were built to travel and move around. This book talks about the materials used for the house type as well as the location, date, and other fascinating facts. This is a helpful book when introducing the diversity of homes. Laroche, Giles. (2011) //__If You Lived Here Houses of the World.__// Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 31. Tempe Public Library.

//__ This House is Made of Mud __// by Ken Buchanan This story begins by describing a house that was built by a family out of mud. The house is round with one door and many windows. It has a view of the sky during the day and the stars at night. This house shares with the animals and bugs all over. Some animals live in and around the house while others live in the yard with all the plants. This book gives a beautiful perspective on living in a home in the desert that was built from our earth. Each page gives a small detail on the house and its characteristics. Sometimes mentioning the breezes through the window or the friends that live in the yard. This yard however, stretches for miles and is fenced by mountains, it is the desert. In this book there are beautiful water color pictures that give a wonderful representation of the author’s ideas; some indicating the rain passing through for a short while, or the sun visiting every day. This book could be shared when discussing coming together as a whole to build something and sharing with one another as the animals and people do. Buchanan, Ken. (1991) //__This House is Made of Mud.__// Northland Publishing. 32. Tempe Public Library.

//__ Houses of Bark __// by Bonnie Shemie On the first two pages there is a large map of the USA and Canada and all the different places that Indians lived. This story begins by setting up a scene in your mind located in the northern woodlands: The temperature is dropping and families are working together to build a tipi and gather other materials to stay warm. It then explains other houses that were built with the same materials as a tipi, they were the wigwam and the longhouses. These houses shared many of the same materials such as birch bark because it was lighter to carry and came of the tree easily in big chunks. This book goes on to tell how bark was prepared for building the houses and that even the weather made a difference. There are colored pencil pictures and descriptions that talk about how to build various tipi’s like the basic bark tipi or the elongated bark tipi. Then it goes into the different types of wigwam houses. Wigwam houses were built similar to an igloo’s structure and does not have as steep of sides as a tipi. There is a vent for smoke from a fire pit can escape at the top. Though the wigwam was useful in many ways, it was more difficult to build than the basic bark tipi. This book explains some of the more complex building techniques that were used to create such homes. The last type of house mentioned in this book is the longhouse. The longhouse sheltered extended families and was the largest of bark dwellings. Families could live in these homes for up to fifteen years as long as the soil around them was fertile. Bark served many useful purposes, not only to build houses to but to build canoes or containers or baby carriers. This book alternates pages with pictures and pages with long descriptions. When narrowing down on the houses and materials made from trees this is a good book to learn from. Shemie, Bonnie. (1990) //__Houses of Bark tipi, wigwam and longhouse.__// Tundra Books. 23. Tempe Public Library.

//__ Houses of Adobe __// by Bonnie Shermie This story begins by talking about two families that were gone from the canyon home, leaving only a few scattered remains of their cooking fire and a trail of footprints in the dried riverbed. This family lived by gathering plants and hunting food. These people were the first to roam the mountains and the plateaus of the southwest United States. Through centuries their descendants built the longest enduring Native architecture in North America. In Chaco Canyon, a “great house” of 800 rooms could shelter 1,000 people. A road system of 400 miles linked these large structures to connect distance villages. The size is not the only impressive thing, by AD 900, the people of the southwest had begun to create pottery and charting the sun and seasons. Adobe homes were also built in difficult places such as cliff dwellings to provide protection. This book covers a lot of history and talks about the pueblo house as well. This house was America’s first apartment building, housing whole communities. All the different types of adobe homes are created in such a way that works with the earth and the people. This book provides images and diagrams of the layouts and technologies used. This is a helpful book for discussing the variety of materials used to build homes and how those people lived in the homes. Shemie, Bonnie. (1995) //__Houses of Adobe.__// Tundra Books. 24. Tempe Public Library.

//__ Houses __// by Gillimard Jeunesse and Claude Delafosse This book starts off by saying that most people live in houses and that there are many types of houses. Then it mentions what is needed to build a house like a plot of land and an architect. In prehistoric times, people lived in caves that gave them shelter form bad weather and wild animals. Later, people started building homes out of ice called igloos. In other parts of the world where it was hot, houses were made of stone, mud and straw. Some places with lots of marsh were houses built on stilts. Some houses travel, some houses float and some houses reside in space. All these houses have similarities and differences between them and students can describe those qualities. This is a visually stimulating book because some of the photos are see through and many show the inside and outside of the home. Jeunesse, Gallimard. Delafosse, Claude. (1995) //__Houses.__// Scholastic. 37. Tempe Public Library.

//__ Douse a Mouse Have a House? __// By Anne Miranda In the rhyming story each pages describes the home of a different animal or bug. For example, a spiders place is a web like lace. There are the pictures and small descriptions of animals such as bee’s, owls, panda bears, flamingos, hippos, camels, zebra, fish and many more. The end leaves the reader with a question, “does a mouse have a house?” This book gives students the opportunity to think about the different environment for each animal and why they might live there. What makes this book so inspiring is the collage art of pictures that overlap and are made from cut outs of water paintings creating depth to the story. This is a wonderful read aloud and the art is a great topic to touch on as well. This book is good for children to gain insight on the many places animals can live. Miranda, Anne. (1994) //__Does a Mouse Have a House?__// Bradbury Press New York. 25. Tempe Public Library.

** Children’s Fiction­­ ** //__ The Little Crooked House __// by Margaret Wild This story begins by introducing a little crooked old man that bought a crooked cat, which found a crooked mouse, and they lived together in a little crooked house. The house was as first built on the edge of railroad track and every day the train would shake the little crooked house. The little crooked man decided they should move so the little crooked house ran away from the train. The house finally came to a desert where the little crooked man, the crooked cat and the crooked mouse played. But every day hot winds would blow and the sand piled up almost burying them, so the little crooked man decided they should move. The little crooked house ran over the dunes, far away. Finally, it reached a wide river where the little crooked man, the crooked cat and the crooked mouse would play. One day, however, it rained hard enough that the little crooked house could be washed away. So the little crooked man said it was time to move. The house ran until it reached a city and sat between two houses and here the little crooked man knew he would surely not be shaken, or buried, or washed away but would be safe. There the little crooked man and the crooked cat and the crooked mouse were happy. This is a good story for children to read because it has a lot of repetition and could provide many opportunities of engagement. After covering a unit on homes this is a funny book for children to listen to. Each page has a picture, created by water colors, which show the struggles of the little crooked house. There are many different regions and landscapes in this story that maintain different types of habitats. As the house moves from area to area the weather changes and creates a problem for the residents in the home. Children can talk about times that they have experienced similar weather problems. Wild, Margaret. (2006) //__The little Crooked House.__// Simply Read Books. 34. Tempe Public Library.

//__ Old MacDonald Had an Apartment __// by Judi Barrett This story begins by introducing Old MacDonald and his wife and how they live in an apartment house owned by Fat Mr. Wrental. Old MacDonald had discovered a problem when his wife’s tomato plant wasn’t growing due to the lack of sunlight. Old MacDonald cut down the hedge in front of the window so that the light could shine through and the plant began to grow. But a new problem arose, the area where the hedge once was looked so empty now. Old MacDonald suggested that they fill it with his wife’s tomato plant so that it can grow bigger. Soon Old MacDonald cut down more of the hedge out front and planted a whole garden. When one of the tenants in the building decided to move out, Old MacDonald decided it was a good place to grow lots more vegetables. Soon the empty apartment was filled with veggies but the downstairs neighbor was having a problem. He was seeing carrots growing through his roof and potato vines were sneaking through the faucets. The angry neighbor down stairs decided to move out. When he moved out, a cow, more veggies and a field of clover moved in. Sooner than later the whole apartment house building was emptied of people and replaced with food and animals. Fat Mr. Wrental was angry with Old MacDonald when he discovered the news of all the tenants leaving. After a lot of thinking, Fat Mr. Wrental came up with an idea to make money off of this “middle of the city farm.” All of the fruits and vegetables were sold to help pay the rent of each room. The building would keep growing if people kept buying. Even in winter, when the earth outside was freezing and covered with snow, things were still growing on the steam-heated farm. This story is a twist on the old tale Old MacDonald had a Farm. Here, he has a farm in unusual circumstances. This story is helpful when discussing the different types of homes and even how Old MacDonald integrated two types of home, a farm and an apartment house. There are many problems that the characters in this book face and it provides students with opportunities for discussion on how to problem solve. Barrett, Judi. (1969) //__Old MacDonald Had an Apartment.__// Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 30. Tempe Public Library.

//__ The Little House __// by Virginia Lee Burton This is the story about a little house that was built by a man and he said, “This little house shall never be sold for gold or silver and she will live to see our great-great grandchildren’s great-great- grandchildren living in her.” The little house watched the days and nights pass by peacefully and wondered what it was like to live in the city with all those lights. This little house, she watched the seasons change, the countryside change and the children play every day. She watched the change from horse drawn carriages to steam shovels. Soon the little house was watching people pass her on new roads. As more houses were built around the little house she seemed to be looking smaller in such a big changing world. Pretty soon there were subways and trains all around the little house and she could see and feel it all. Later, the buildings next to the little house were torn down to create even taller buildings and the little house could barely see the sun and moon at all anymore. The little house felt sad and lonely until one morning the great-great-granddaughter of the man who built the little house stopped by. She had decided she would try to get the little house moved out of the city. At first, the little house was afraid but then she was used to the new scenery and rather enjoyed her new spot in the country. Once again she was able to watch the sun and moon and she was lived in and taken care of. This book shows the many changes in our society and gives a perspective from the little house. The little house witnessed years of change and felt many emotions along the way. Children can relate to feeling some of those emotions. This is a good book for children to read or listen to when talking about the differences in homes and where they come from. Sometimes, homes do not change but the place around them do. Burton, Virginia. (1942) //__The Little House.__// Houghton Mifflin Company. 40. Tempe Public Library.