Wednesday, August 24, 2016

#Review: Rice and Rocks by Sandra L. Richards #DiverseBooks



Summary:
Giovanni’s friends are coming over for Sunday dinner, and his grandmother is serving rice and beans. Giovanni is embarrassed—he does not like “rice and rocks” and worries his friends will think the traditional Jamaican dish is weird. But his favorite Auntie comes to the rescue. She and Giovanni’s pet parrot, Jasper, take him on a magical journey across the globe, visiting places where people eat rice and rocks. This exciting story celebrates the varied traditions of every culture while also highlighting the delicious similarities that bring us all together. 


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My review:
This wonderful little picture book celebrates cultural differences and cultural sameness. What I like about it though, the boy in the story learns about his own culture and that of others by going to the places where his friends are from.

Children reading this book are sure to get the concept that sometimes, even though we may be different, sometimes we have very similar taste in things, as the case in this book for food.
I found it interesting that one of the cultures used the beans and rice as a celebratory food and that them came up in the end of the book.

I thought the book had a magical essence about it because the way that the child and his aunt traveled and the interesting pet he had. This gave the book a different spin that I had not seen before.I loved that the child's interest were wrapped up in their travels too. That was a nice touch.

Finally, I really liked the illustrations in this book, they pretty much filled up the pages. They were not loud, bright colors but a bit more muted. Some pictures even were in black and white. That made them feel in a different time and space.

This is the first book from this author and I look forward to reading other books from her.  5 stars.


Disclosure: I received a PDF copy of this book in exchange for my open and honest opinion. The views expressed here are 100% my own and may differ from yours. This review is also part of the Beach Bound Book Tours. ~M.M. aka Naila Moon

Where to find the author:

2 comments:

Stacie Theis said...

Thank you for sharing your review for Rice & Rocks. It is a wonderful story with beautiful illustrations.

XmasDolly said...

Awwww that's sounds cute. Thanks for sharing. Good review my friend. hugs