By Tomas Moniz and Alicia Dornadic
AK Press 2018
38 pages Children nonfiction
Collaboration is a charming book, in both English and Spanish.
It describes the manner in which the we work and play with each other and with
the world around us. It is designed for
children in the early elementary grades. I read it in English with my
granddaughter Adela, who is going into the second grade.
First we discussed the term collaboration, then we read the book, and then we discussed the
ways in which she collaborates. She happens to be attending a summer day camp
that her mother is running for a bunch of elementary school children, so she
had lots of examples of collaboration. Her analysis of the book was that the
words could help children understand how people work together, but she felt
that some of the pictures were difficult to decipher. They are watercolors,
rather monochromatic, and do need some interpretation. We also talked about how reviewing this book for my blog was also a collaboration.
My favorite lines were “the way you turn the page and I read
the words and we dream the story.” I loved the thought “we dream the story.”
Adela’s favorite page was “the way you sing the words I make the beat we make
music.” She had just come from singing at a nursing home with her other grandma
and the children from the day camp. They collaborated with guitars, drums, and
a viola!
We would recommend this book for classrooms—particularly bilingual
classrooms. My daughter will use it in her classroom this school year as she
teaches her school children to work together.
The publisher AK Press, is primarily a publisher of adult
books. This is their first foray in children’s book. It’s a meaningful start.
Maybe Congress should be sent copies and Adela will come
and explain collaboration to them!
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