New Book Helps Children Identify with Kenyan People and Culture

BETHPAGE, N.Y. - Jan. 27, 2014 - PRLog -- After taking children to Mexico, France, South Korea, and Norway in previous books, author Carole P. Roman now invites kids to join her on the African continent in her newest book “If You Were Me and Lived in Kenya: A Child’s Introduction to Culture Around the World” (ISBN: 9781481979914, Red Feather Publishing, 2013).

Parents, teachers, and especially children have been discovering new cultures, foods, and friends all over the world ever since author Carole P. Roman published the first book in the “If You Were Me and Lived in...” series. Now the fifth book takes its readers on a fascinating journey of exploration in Kenya. Like the previous books, “Kenya” touches on ten items children can identify with and offers an overall look at the country’s culture.

A variety of interesting topics are explored in “If You Were Me and Lived in Kenya,” including cooking goat on a spit, playing cricket, learning words similar to English ones like “shule” (school) and “Mzazi” (Mommy), and visiting interesting places like Maasai Mara National Park, filled with a variety of African wildlife, and the Mombassa Carnival. Designed especially for children ages 3 to 8, the book is perfect for reading aloud and for early readers and includes a glossary. In addition, the colorful and educational illustrations by Kelsea Wierenga help children visualize Kenya’s landscape, people, customs, and animals.

Roman was thrilled recently to learn that her educational hopes for the book were being realized. Nine-year-old ReaderViews Kids reviewer, Zoey Crane, wrote, “I loved loved this book....I read this two times and then took it to my teacher. I am in 4^th grade and she read it to the class. Now we all want to get more books from this author! We decided that from what we learned from this book we would have a Kenya day where we all dressed up and pretended we were living in Kenya. Each of us had to do our own research on Kenya and then talk about it in class.”

Equally important, Roman hopes these books will help people learn to get along. In a recent interview, she stated, “I think if children learn about other customs and cultures, they will appreciate the differences and perhaps prejudice will disappear. If we are familiar and understand why people do what they do, maybe it will create a climate of tolerance.” In our increasingly diverse and shrinking world, few goals could be more important. Take the journey to Kenya with Roman now and discover what an interesting and diverse world we live in. And don’t forget to watch for the upcoming books on Turkey, Russia, Portugal, and Greece.

About the Author

Award-winning author Carole P. Roman started writing as a dare from one of her sons. Using an imaginary game she played with her grandson as a base, Captain No Beard was born. The first book was named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best of 2012 and has been followed by four more books in the series. Carole has also written a beginner’s yoga book for children, “I Want to Do Yoga, Too” and the groundbreaking new nonfiction children’s series “If You Were Me and Lived in...”, which combines her teaching past with her love of exploration and interest in the world around us. Roman lives on Long Island with her husband and near her adult children.

“If You Were Me and Lived in Kenya: A Child’s Introduction to Culture Around the World” (ISBN: 9781481979914, Red Feather Publishing, 2013) can be purchased through local and online bookstores. For more information, visit www.caroleproman.com. Publicity contact: www.ReaderViews.com. Review copies available upon request.