by :: Cate
If you’d like to cultivate intercultural competence in kids, a great place to start is with developing curiosity, openness to, and respect for difference.
Books that take a cross-cultural peek at daily life around the world are fantastic resources for helping young kids develop the attitudes on which further intercultural knowledge and skills are built.
The following 4 books – all only a click away on Amazon and under $14 – explore kid-friendly universals (e.g. food, losing a tooth, going to school) by comparing and contrasting various aspects of daily life around the world.
As kids read these fun books they’ll discover that how they live isn’t the only – or correct – way to do things. Here’s a little more about each one:
Book #1 :: Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World
I used to think that all kids placed their recently lost tooth under their pillow in exchange for a quarter from the Tooth Fairy, as I’d done growing up in the U.S.
Not so!
Kids in Mexico leave their tooth in a box next to their bed for El Raton. In Botswana, kids throw theirs on the roof and say a rhyme. And in Kyrgyzstan, kids roll their tooth in bread and give it to a mouse.
Throw Your Tooth on the Roof: Tooth Traditions from Around the World is a beautifully illustrated book. What a great present for a child about to lose their first tooth!
>> $6.95 at Amazon, 32 pages, ages 4-8
Book #2 :: Wake Up World: A Day in the Life of Children Around the World
Loaded with pictures, this book follows 8 kids from countries such as Brazil, Ghana, and Australia through a typical day.
After waking up, kids get ready for their day and then go to school. Then it’s playtime, dinner time, and bedtime.
Wake Up World: A Day in the Life of Children Around the World ends with each kid explaining what they want to be when they grow up and a short description of their home country.
>> $12.21 at Amazon, 48 pages, ages 4-8
Book #3 :: Imagine A House: A Journey to Fascinating Houses Around the World
Where in the world would you find an adobe house? A beehive house? How about a reed house?
Imagine a House: A Journey to Fascinating Hourses Around the World will tell you all about those houses – and many others!
On the final page of the book there’s space for the reader to draw his/her house. Also included in this book are discussion questions, activity ideas, and a list of 20 additional types of houses kids can learn more about.
>>$13.22 at Amazon, 32 pages, ages 9-12
Book #4 :: Bread, Bread, Bread 
It’s no mystery what this book is about.
Bread, Bread, Bread looks at the many, many shapes, sizes, and ways we bake and eat – you guessed it – bread.
>>$12.23 at Amazon, 64 pages, ages 9-12
What are your – or your kids’ – favorite cross-cultural books?
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