First Experiences is an exciting new series portraying young children's very first experience of nursery school, time with grandparents and other events. The first time for anything can be daunting, and these books set out to familiarise children, through simple read-aloud words and beautiful photos, with what seems, at first, unfamiliar but will eventually become a routine part of everyday life. In this book set in Ghana, Stephanie is getting everything ready because Grandma is coming to stay. Grandma shows Stephanie how to wear traditional dress, reads her favourite book, and takes her to see real-life dancers at a festival. In return, Stephanie shows Grandma how to kick a ball, ride a bike and play the drum.(www.amazon.com)

I like this book for a couple of reasons. The first is that it is very family oriented. Stephanie is very excited for her grandma to come. She helps her mom prepare the house and cooking for her grandma's visit even when her friends are over! When the grandma comes, they spend a lot of time together: reading books, playing dolls, and telling stories. It really emphasizes how valuable time with family is and how it should be a priority.
The other reason is that it incorporates African culture. It provides insight into what a typical African household looks like. I believe from the author’s preface that it is in Ghana. The author sprinkles in some of the African cultures into the story without it becoming the focal point of the story. The grandma tells stories of a magic drum which implies that the culture includes folktales and storytelling. She lets her try on traditional clothes and a beautiful headdress. They even go to a festival and see dancers. All these activities are captured by the photos from a real family posted in the book. By doing so, it makes the story come to life and make the world seem not so big and far away.
The main idea is that spending time with family is precious and worth remembering. It also shows that embracing your heritage is wonderful and helps family bond.
I believe this book is nonfiction biography since the book is dedicated to the family in the book. ( )

SUMMARY-This book is about a grandma who goes to visit her grand daughter and they end up showing each other how to do different things.

PERSONAL REACTION-Really great book on how to learn and share on how to see and do things with your family members.

CLASSROOM EXTENSION- This would be a good lesson in Social Studies on studying the different cultures and what they do, could also be used as a family lesson on learning from one another whether big or small.

TAGS-MULTI CULTURAL FAMILY CULTURES MUSIC

Summary:
When Stephanie’s grandma is coming to stay Stephanie helps her mother get the house ready. Grandma teaches Stephanie how to wear traditional dress, reads to her, and takes her to a festival. In return Stephanie shows grandma how to ride a bike, kick a ball and play the drum. Then its time for grandma to leave and Stephanie cant wait till her next visit.

Personal Reaction:
This story had a lot of spelling and grammatical errors to show the reader the difference in culture. I really enjoyed the story and think it’s a good story to read before talking about the African culture.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. I would read the story and have children help me pick out the errors so they get the idea that there are spelling errors and understand the difference in cultures.
2. We would then go on into discussing the culture in Africa and learning about there culture.

I think this book would be a great book for 1st grade ELL students because it has easy words to read and it has great pictures that would interest them. I would definitely use this book in my classroom by reading it to the entire class. ( )