Multicultural Book Review: Jingle Dancer

Picture courtesy of Amazon.com

Title: Jingle Dancer

Author: Cynthia Leitich Smith

Genre: Native Americans, Cultural, Children's Literature 

Illustrator: Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu

Publisher: HarperCollins

Copyright Date: 2000

Pages: 32 Pages

Awards: One Book One San Diego for Young Adult (2013)

Summary: This is a book about a young girl named Jenna who wants to dance at the Powwow like her Grandmother Wolfe but has a problem because her dress does not jingle. She watches videos of her grandmother dancing and loves the sound of her tink, tink, tink, tink dress. So she dreams up of being a jingle dancer and decides to ask for bells to create her own dress regalia. Jenna visits family members like Great-aunt Sis, Mrs. Scott, and Cousin Elizabeth where she gets enough bells. She promises to dance for them because they won’t be able to dance in the Powwow. Jenna and her Grandmother work together to sew on the jingles, and Jenna continued to practice her bounce-steps. During the Powwow Jenna jingle danced for all her family members, but especially for her Grandmother “who warmed like Sun.”

Educational Purpose: I would incorporate this book for a lesson about Native American Indians and their traditions of a Powwow. This book will help students to acquire knowledge, and appreciate the tradition of American Indians. During the reading I would have students keep a piece of paper for words that they do not understand. At the end of this book is a glossary that explains some of the cultural vocabulary words the students would be exposed to. I would also have students watch a live video of a Jingle Dancer. Also, I would ask a guest speaker to come in and share about the Powwow and to show the students how to dance the jingle dance. 

Grade Level: (Kindergarten-Second Grade) This book has topics that are familiar and likeable to the readers. New vocabulary will be introduced, and there are a lot of pictures and little text. The story will engage and teach a new concept to students. Also, this book is meant for students who are learning how to read. Lexile 710L.

Ratings:

					Comments
Plot	Excellent plot that is clever and has many surprising twists.	Good plot that has some surprises.	This is an okay plot that is kinda interesting.	Loose plot with many holes, and fails to grab the reader’s attention.	This is a great story that introduces the reader to Native American culture. Throughout the novel you are waiting to see if everything words out.
Character	Excellent characterization. The characters are complex and provide a strong emotional impact on the reader.	The characters are believable and the reader can relate to them, and feel an emotional tie to the characters.	The characters are lacking but likable. There is some emotional attachment to the characters.	The characters are poorly described, and leave the reader feeling detached from the book.	The character were very engaging. You are connected and cant wait to find out if Jenna will get to dance will bells.
Illustration	Excellent illustrations. Very detailed, creative, and connected to the book.	Illustrations were good and showed something important about the book.	The illustrations were okay, they were not very creative.	There was no illustrations, or they were not interesting.	The illustrations are absolutely amazing. The use of watercolors brings a realness to the pictures.
Recommendation	Excellent book that I highly recommend having in your classroom or library. This book will captivate, enchant, fascinate, and basically make you obsess about it.	Good book that I recommend having in your classroom or library. The book was interesting and kept my interest and was overall very engaging.	This book was okay. I believe this would be a book to check out from the library if you're feeling bored.	This book was awful and I cannot recommend it for your classroom or library. This book will leave you wishing you could rewind time so you don’t read it.	I highly recommend this book. This is a great Native American resource for teachers to have in their classroom.