Customer Reviews

Benjamin and the Word

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4 star:		(2)
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This book was one of ten books that addressed bullying that was randomly chosen for a content analysis. Five questions were presented: Does the book explain what bullying is? Who the bully and who the victim is? Does the book explain what to do if bullied? Does the book explain that bullying is not gender specific? And, does the book explain that there are different kinds of bullying? This particular book addressed the first three questions very well. That is an important issue if we use the book to educate our children about bullying. However, this is the only book out of ten that addressed culture. We as a society need to be culturally responsive, educating our children about other ways, ideas, beliefs and lifestyles. We need to teach our children that it is alright to be different! This book addressed that. The bi-lingual text was a plus also. JN

Benjamin is half Hispanic and half Jewish. I read this to my seven-year-old son, who is also mixed-race, and he seemed very absorbed by the story. I like the fact that Benjamin's father is empathetic and nurturing, and I like the fact that the incident is resolved without a lot of drama. The issue of name-calling is handled in a realistic way in this book. I included this book on my web site, Gender Equality Bookstore, which features books that help kids break out of gender stereotypes: [...]

Benjamin is playing with a friend named James on the playground. They are playing handball and Benjamin ends up winning the game. This does not sit well with James. He gets angry with Benjamin and calls him a bad name! After school Benjamin's father comes to pick him up and can tell that he has had a bad day. They start to talk about what happened. Benjamin's father has a few good ideas on how to deal with the perpetrator and Benjamin takes his father's advice and the situation is dealt with. This book is a great addition to the bilingual collection at the local library.