Kiki by: Hilda Perera

This is a story for upper elementary students about a Cuban boy named Kiki and his "adventures in America." It is a great story because it tells all about Kiki's experiences in America and has a lot of cultural relevance according with diversity. It tells stories about his struggles and hopes and dreams and everything else and how difficult it is for him as a Cuban in America. This would be a great book for children to read because it deals with cultural identity and America's notion of the "melting pot" and how that can affect people's lives. I really enjoyed reading it and think it could be very beneficial to teach to children about diversity. I also think it is great because a lot of times we talk about African-Americans and Mexicans in America but we tend to overlook children from other minority groups. I think this book would be a good way to introduce a lot of other cultural groups into the classroom discussions of diversity as well because no one really thinks of Cuban-Americans when discussing race and culture in the U.S.