Multicultural Books

 
ISBN: 1553377524
Citation: Uegaki, C. (2005). Suki's Kimono. Toronto: Kids Can Press.

Suki’s Kimono is about a young girl who decides to wear a blue cotton kimono that her grandma had given her on the first day of school, despite her sisters trying to convince her not to. Suki’s kimono is very special, as it allows her to relive the enchanting memories of when her grandmother visited and took her to an astounding Japanese street festival. From the weightless strings of paper lanterns, the thundering beats of the taiko drummers, and flowing movements of the Japanese dancers, Suki holds on to these wonderful memories. However, everyone else that Suki encounters does not seem to understand and she is teased by her classmates. Nonetheless, when the time comes for each student to share what they had done over the summer, Suki performs a dance that she witnessed during the Japanese street festival and everyone is left speechless. Things quickly turn around for Suki, and her kimono-wearing-ways are accepted with ease. Throughout the entire story Suki remains strong, and realises the importance of staying true to who you are.   

Young children will love Suki, as she is a bold and whimsical character that listens to her heart. The beautiful water colour illustrations take us on a journey through Suki’s memories and allow us to experience everything that took place from her perspective. The illustrations of the Japanese street festival are especially captivating and cause the readers to long to be there with Suki. As delightful as it is heartwarming, Suki’s Kimono will leave you wanting to book the next flight to Japan – or at least in our imaginations!


Background and Provocations
1.) Japanese music can be played in the classroom before reading the story (ie. festival music, taiko drumming, etc.)

2.) A Japanese paper lantern can be suspended from the ceiling of the classroom before presenting the picture book.

3.) Teachers can show pictures or videos of Japanese street festivals to the students and speak a little about the different performances and traditions that occur.

4.) If it is at all possible, coming to school wearing a kimono would be an awesome provocation!

Presenting the Story
1.) Clothesline Story – The story can be retold by having illustrations clipped on to the clothesline in sequential order. Key illustrations from the picture book can be photocopied to present the story. These can include: Suki coming down the stairs of her house in her kimono, the dancers under the paper lanterns, the taiko drummers, Suki and her sisters leaving to go to school, Suki’s classmates teasing her in class, Suki dancing in front of the class, and finally Suki walking back home happily in her kimono.

2.) Props and Puppets - The story can also be presented through props and puppets. Puppets can include but are not limited to Suki and her kimono, Suki’s sisters (can be made into one puppet as they only appear together in the story), Suki’s grandmother, a Japanese dancer, a Taiko drummer, and one of Suki’s classmates. Puppets can be made simply with felt, or dolls can also be used. Props can include but are not limited to a Japanese paper lantern (can be propped up on a stick/straw), and taiko drums (can be made by painting yogurt containers).

3.) Acting it Out – We can start by recreating Suki’s experience at the Japanese street festival with the children. Teachers can read the text from this part of the story and play Japanese music for the students to dance to, just as Suki and her grandmother did. Students can also wave paper lanterns to the music as well (paper lanterns can be made during an extension activity). Next we can play taiko drumming music and have the children either pretending to hit the taiko drums or having actually drums for them to use. For the next section we could orally tell the main points of the story (ie. Suki goes to school, everyone she meets teases her, her teacher then calls on her to share what she did during the summer). We can have the children pretend to be Suki and dance as she did in front of her class (and play music). Lastly we can then orally retell how everyone was amazed at her dance and began commenting positively about her kimono and have the children be Suki and skip happily back home.       

Wonders
Some wonders that can be included while reading the story include:
·    I wonder why Suki loves her kimono so much (p 2)
·    I wonder what kind of music these dancers are dancing to (p 6)
·    I wonder how it would feel to stand in front of these taiko drummers (p 8)
·    I wonder what will happen when she goes to school in her kimono (p 12)
·    I wonder what her classmates are thinking while seeing Suki dance (p 22)

Extensions
1.) Art Activity - Allowing the students to decorate their own kimono. We can prefold origami kimonos out of construction paper and allow the children to decorate it with felts, paint, etc. A website that has step-by-step instructions can be found here: http://mairuru.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-make-origami-kimono.html

2.) Art Activity – Create Japanese paper lanterns with the students. This website describes how to make a simple Japanese lantern, Japanese lantern ornaments, and floating Japanese lanterns: http://www.ehow.com/list_5895619_crafts-using-japanese-lanterns.html

3.) Additional Stories/Books – We could explore other storybooks or non-fiction books about Japanese culture. While doing this we can see what aspects of Japanese culture the students are most interested in and extend further from that (ie. If they enjoy learning about the food, we can have an activity to make sushi with them, etc.)

4.) Music and Dancing – Similar to the third way of presenting, we could bring in samples of Japanese music and allow the children to listen as well as dance to the music, describe how they feel while listening, what images come to mind, etc.