Bread Is For Eating

·        Bread Is For Eating, David and Phillis Gershator, Fiction/Song

·        Phillis Gershator has written a variety of picture and story books, her husband David is a songwriter and poetry translator—he helped Phillis with the musical/poetic aspect of this book.

·        I am bilingual and have often used music when teaching both English and Spanish as second languages. This book would be a lovely choice for the multilingual classroom.

·        Some talk topics:

o       The story begins as a boy tells how his mother encourages him to finish his food with a simple song in Spanish that conveys how precious bread is for life and that it should not be wasted.

o       There are beautiful borders of illustrations that relate to the theme of that page.

o       Each page shows a different aspect of life as it relates to the production and consumption of bread—showing the reader how important each part of the process getting food is for the sustenance of our families.

o       The illustrations are colorful but not too bright. They give a feeling of comfort and joy to the story. The song is repeated throughout the book, imparting a sweet, musical quality to the whole book. At the end of the book you can find the musical score so that the song can be performed.

o       Music is such a wonderful way to engage children and for many people it makes learning languages easier. This book would be a great resource for the multilingual classroom.

Here's a video of this book featured on Reading Rainbow- It's great to hear the song played! http://vimeo.com/6494890

Photo credit (4/2/2013) http://jacketupload.macmillanusa.com/jackets/high_res/jpgs/9780805057980.jpg