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Armando and the Blue Tarp School

Author: Edith Hope Fine and Judith Pinkerton Josephson- They each have their own web page as well a Grammar Patrol. Illustrator: Hernan Sosa  You can see colorful pictures of the book at his webpage.

Visit the website here: bluetarpschool.com  to learn more about the authors and what the book supports.

You can also find images and information at the publishing company website: LeeandLow.com

Criteria for Notable Multicultural books
 * 1) **Include characters with a cultural group of two or more cultural groups who interact substantially and authentically. ** This book is based off a a true story where an American, David Lynch, creates and builds a school for children in the Tijuana dump. This book shows the cultural interaction of an American teacher and Mexican students learning the English language among other things.
 * 2) ** Include member of a "minority" group for a purpose other than filling a "quota". ** As mentioned before, there is more than one culture represented in this book. Since this book takes place in Mexico, the minority is the American teacher. His purpose serves much more of a role than to represent America. He is a educator who volunteers his time to teach young children who may never have had the opportunity. Additionally, being based on a true story, his culture serves more than a role of being American, he is a real person, so the demographic he is from was not just chosen.
 * 3) ** Meet generally accepted criteria of quality for the genre in which it was written. ** This book has won many awards including the Paterson Prize for Books for Young People, Children's Books of the Year- Bank Street College Children's Book Committee, Skipping Stones Award- Skipping Stone Magazine, Lasting Connections Title- Book Links, "Choices"- Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC), Editor's Favorites- The Bloomsbury Review, San Diego Book Awards- Picture Book Winner, and the California Young Readers Medal- Nominee, Picture Book for Older Readers.
 * 4) ** Portray cultural accuracy and authenticity of characters in terms of the following: **
 * **Physical characteristics **
 * **Intellectual abilities **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This book portrays the struggle between allowing children to attend school or help at home or with work. More and more opportunities are arising for children to attend some form of school, yet the struggle is to get them there, much like Armando and his family are dealing with.
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Social and economic status **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Although not all families in Mexico live like Armando, many people in Tijuana as well as other places make their living off of the trash dump they live near.

<span style="color: #0000ff; display: block; font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive; font-size: 200%; text-align: center;">Armando in the Classroom