Summary: Throughout the year and around the globe, people use light, candles, bonfires, lanterns and fireworks to celebrate special occasions. This richly illustrated book is an illuminating tour of the world's brightest and warmest festivities.
Rationale: I chose this text because it uses a fictional character to share one festival, and on the facing page a festival from a different area of the world is described in straight nonfiction. I loved the combination of fiction and non-fiction to expose my students to multiple genres within the same text. 
Literacy Strategies: Say Something After reading the text aloud as a whole group, students will engage in Say Something strategy where pairs of students will receive one copy of a section of the text. Students will re-read and discuss together. After reading the fiction side, students will stop and "say something" to each other about the reading and then repeat for the non-fiction side. As a closing, I will ask the students to reflect on how "say something" supported their reading and discussions.  

Summary: The main character is sent to find their younger brother at dinnertime and is introduced to a variety of cultures while encountering the many different ways rice is prepared at the different households visited.
Rationale: I chose this book because food is a huge part of culture and I felt it represented all the different ways cultures can cook the same food. It also shows students that different cultures can live right down the street, they don't need to be a world apart.
Literacy Strategies: Graffiti Board  After reading the story aloud as a class, students will work in small groups to create a graffiti board representing all the different cultures and their ways of cooking. Each group will then share their board and discuss the similarities and difference between the responses.