The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story

Bibliographic Information: Shea, P.D. (1996). The Whispering Cloth: A Refugee's Story. Illus. Anita Riggio. Honesdale, PA: Boyds Mills Press.

Annotation: Based in a Thai refugee camp, this is a story of a young Hmong girl and the making of her very own pa'ndau (a traditional cloth which tells a story). The story entails heartbreaking memories of the girls past as she develops her pa'ndau. The "illustrations" in this book are amazing.

Genre: Genre fiction

Grade level: K-2

Readers who will like this book: Children that are visual learners and those who are learning about different cultures and their diversity.

Personal response: The thing I like most about this book were the illustrations and how Riggio used detailed pictures of the needlepoint work used in making authentic pa'ndaus. It is a good book to show children the great differences in other cultures.

A question you would ask before reading: Has anyone ever written a book about their past experiences in childhood?

Reading Strategies Connection:
a.) Preview-Predict-Confirm
b.) Students preview a book (a picture walk), make predictions about the content and finally confirm, after reading, if those predictions were correct or not. The children are able to predict words, ideas, etc... Then the students come together and share their predictions. You can also have the students predict feelings, emotions, actions, importance, and so on after the book.
c.) This activity would help students focus on the cultural diversity of the book and find similarities and differences between their culture and the refugee girls. It also explores a child's prior knowledge of the Hmong culture and past events. Having students confirm their predictions allows the teacher to give the children correct information about the book and the Hmong culture.