About book 14 Vacas Para America = 14 Cows For America (2010)
This had a 2.2 grading level for children in Kindergarten through second grade. A true story about an African village having remorse for the 9/11 attacks and sent 14 of their cows as a gift to show how truly bad they feel. The US Ambassador was invited and attended a ceremony where the gift was presented at their village. The audience is presented of the tragedy on 9/11 but most readers were not yet born. The Maasai village and having a ceremony for America by inviting the US Ambassador was all accurate. The villagers gave the Ambassador for America fourteen cows as a way to pay their respects and help out in the dark times. The book has several themes throughout the book that teaches the reader. Most of the readers were not born when 9/11 occurred so some of this is informational. The book also explain a little about the Maasai culture and how generous they are. The book included the minorities of the Maasai tribe. A student who is from that tribe was in New York and witnessed the 9/11 attacks and told his village about the travesty. The village was small and did not have much but felt so terrible that they invited the US Ambassador for a ceremony and gave America a gift of 14 cows. This book is called 14 Cows for America, and is written by Carmen Agra Deedy. The illustrations are beautiful, and are done by Thomas Gonzalez. This book is about an African villager who goes to school in New York to become a doctor. When he returns to his village in Africa he tells the people a story. The story is about September 11th. The villagers want to help the Americans out and invites the U.S. Ambassador to visit. When he visited, the villagers throw a celebration, and present the Ambassador with 14 cows. For me, I hear so much bad news about September 11th, but seem to never hear the good stories like this one. This story would be a fantastic book to read for September 11th. It provides a very brief overview of what happened that day in New York, but also tells about a country who wants to help out another country. This is also a great book to show students that not all countries dislike the others, and that their are great citizens in the world, no matter where you are. This book would be a great book for 2nd -4th grade. After reading the book, the students would then create their own book jacket for the book. The students would learn a couple of great lessons in reading this book, and I think that that is one of the most important take-aways from books. This book was a great book, and did a great job telling the story. The pictures looked like they were done with paint, and really bring out the colors of Africa. The illustrator did a great job at really making the authors words come to life. This is a great book, and I would welcome it in my classroom. Overall I gave this book 5 stars.
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Nice to be thought of and offered a gift of healing.
—sara
