Cows in the House by Beverly Lewis is a wonderful book that can bring a cultural aspect into your classroom. This story is about a young boy that lives with his 5 "quarreling sisters" and his parents. He becomes annoyed with the constant fighting and decides to ask his wise old grandfather what he should do. Over the span of three trips to his grandfather and back home, he is told to bring 2 cows, 5 cousins, and a wedding band into his house. On his forth trip to his grandfather he is ecstatic to hear that he can make the cows, cousins, and band leave. After doing this he realizes how peaceful and spacious the house is even with his sisters.
This story teaches children to be thankful for what they have and realize that it can always be worse. You could pair it with an english lesson around Thanksgiving. Another good aspect of this book is the vocabulary. The author uses words like Pangung, an Indian scarf, and baht, an Indian from of currency.
It's interesting to see how the author doesn't name her characters. The main character is "young boy" and everyone else goes by "mother" or "father" or "grandfather." You could discuss with your class that different cultures also have different writing styles.
Overall great book to read to your students!
This book would be very good for bringing a new culture into the classroom, I definitely agree with you there! Also a way to introduce new vocabulary, especially with the words from the culture. It also has a great lesson at the end, because I think we often forget how good we have it and need to remember we could be in a worse position, it definitely can make kids appreciate what they have and to be thankful for it. Good choice for a book this week!
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