Summary
Mina is excited to celebrate Seollal which is New Year’s Day in Korea. She and her family share the holiday traditions with Mina’s class. She tells them the Korean names for all of the Seollal activities her classmates participate in and they all really like the traditions. When Mina’s brother joins them, he isn’t as proud of the holiday as his sister. Then Mina’s classmates complement him which helps him to realize how special the holiday actually is and makes them both proud of Seollal.
Theme(s):
Family, Traditions, Accepting
Personal Response
This great book showed readers that what they say has an impact on people, since Mina’s classmates were excited for Miro’s clothes, he learns to be as well. This shows readers that they can be supportive of people different from themselves. I also really liked how it showed steps, in words and pictures, to do certain activities. Lastly, I really enjoy all books that include another language, including the glossary for those words, as it really emphasizes the word more than if it were in English.
Teaching Ideas
As an SEL activity students can discuss and write about any holiday that they celebrate. They can model their writing after this book to include steps in both words and pictures so that everyone has a better understanding of it. To have a better understanding of certain parts of the book and since there were lots of activities described in the book they could also try out some of them in the classroom. For example students can try to do the Bokjumoni, like origami, that is on the first page.
Recommended Reading Level
Grade 01, Grade 02, Grade 03, Grade 04
