Sharing Culture with Friends

Food is the easiest way to share our culture with friends and classmates but sometimes children feel a bit apprehensive when opening themselves and their culture up to others. “Rice & Rocks” by Sandra L. Richards highlights the anxiety that the main character Giovanni experiences when introducing his friends to his grandmother’s traditional Jamaican dish of -rice and beans (and stew chicken). Will his friends like the food? Will they pick out the rock?
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The beauty of our world is that each of us has the opportunity to share our cultural experiences with our friends and neighbors. 

"Rice & Rocks” highlights the unique cultural experiences of each of Giovanni’s friends while weaving a similar thread of food and its place as a unifying force for all families everywhere. Giovanni, Jasper (his parrot), his Auntie, and her two dogs take the reader through a cultural map of dishes, explaining how the ingredients bring unique geographic and cultural significance to each respective dish.

The combination of Sandra L. Richards’ words and Megan Kayleigh Sullivan’s images work in concert to transport the reader around the world so well that you can almost smell each dish! This story is an excellent way to start a classroom or home conversation on cultural sharing.
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Find the book on Amazon here!