In Every Tiny Grain of Sand

In Every Tiny Grain of Sand

Collected by: Reeve Lindbergh

Illustrated by: Christine Davenier, Bob Graham, Anita Jeram, and Elisa Kleven

When the viewer will look at the cover of this book, they will think that it will be about children playing at the beach. In Every Tiny Grain of Sand Collected by: Reeve Lindbergh and Illustrated by: Bob Graham, Christine Davenier, Anita Jeram, and Elisa Kleven, this book represents a book full of prayers that are understood in different cultures. Also this book represents "....appreciation of nature, or to praise God, or to cellabrate good things in our lives like our families, our homes, and our love for one another." (Reeve Lindbregh) The book is split up into four catergories: For the Day, For the Home, For the Earth and For the Night (Bob Graham, Elisa Kleven, Christine Davenier, Anita Jeram)

This book is a mulitcultural book because it shows us  and explains how other cultures worship God. In the classroom we as teacher have to be very careful with this topic because we don't want to affend any of our students. For example, when holidays come around some cultures don't celebrate Halloween or Thanksgiving. For those student's we have to be creative how to keep them involved without going over boundries. In Every Tiny Grain of Sand  the text is set up like poetry. As the veiwer can see in the picture above, the text length in each line is very short. An example from the book on how it demonstrates different cultures is from "For the Day" Illustrated by: Bob Graham, this section is about prayer, how the cultures praise differently. For example, "Thank You, God everything, for the morning, when I wake again to You."-Jewish (In Every Tiny Grain of Sand pg. 11) This will give students a chance to hear how other cultures praise God. From the "For the Home" illustrated by: Elisa Kleven, a example would be "See the world as your self. Have faith in the way things are. Love the world as your self; Then you can care for all things" - LAO-TZU (In Every Ting Grain of Sand pg. 32) This quote will teach students that if you can see things from your point of view, then everything around you will make sense. From the "For the Earth" illustrated by: Christine Davenier, a example from this section is the story of Hurt No Living Thing  by: Christina Rossetti (pg. 49) this short story will explain to the students that it is not good to harm animals; no matter how bad they look gross, or the sounds that the animals make.Well in some cultures they do eat grasshoppers, crickets and worms for food; not because they are poor but that is just what they like to eat. From the last section of the book "For the Night" illustrated by: Anita Jerman will let the children know how other cultures keep on believing in something even if he or she is not feeling. A quote from this section that can explain it better is "I believe in the sun even when it is not shining. I believe in love even when feeling is not. I believe when He is silent."-Jewish (In Every Tiny Grain of Sand  pg. 67)

With each quote in this book, it provides pictures to go along with it. The book is very visual to where the viewer can understand what the quote means. An activity that I can do with this book to teach my students about different cultures is to pick out a few quotes from each section and read it to them and as I am reading have them explain what they think about each story or quote. My reader response questions:

1) Which quote could you relate to?

2) Why do you think that they split the book into four catergories?

References:

Google Images

Lindbergh, R., & Davenier, C. (2000). In every tiny grain of sand: A child's book of prayers and praise. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press. pg. 11,32, 49, 67 Print.