Summary
A Crown for Corina shares the self-discovery story of Corina, a young girl who is excited to wear a beautiful crown of flowers for her birthday. As she goes through Abuela’s garden, Corina learns more about the tradition of Mexican flower crowns and discovers it’s more than just picking flowers. It’s about family and connectedness. Abuela teaches that each flower tells a story about how Corina is rooted in her family. Corina learns the importance of valuing who you are and where you come from.
Theme(s):
Family, Love, Connectedness
Personal Response
A debut picture book for author Laekan Zea Kemp, this book has beautiful words that flow with the bright and vivid illustrations. This book made me smile as I read it because of the strong connection to family and valuing traditions. While I do not have a family tradition like Mexican flower crowns, I have other traditions that connect me to my family that I value like Corina. I have not read a book like this before, but I think it would be great to use in any classroom.
Teaching Ideas
This book would be great to use in an elementary classroom as part of the social studies curriculum. Many of the social studies frameworks have a standard related to family across different grade levels. This book could be used to teach different family traditions or different traditions within a culture. Students could work with their families to identify a specific tradition they have in their personal families and then share their traditions with the class.
Recommended Reading Level
Birth-PreK, Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03, Grade 04, Grade 05
