Abiyoyo

Abiyoyo

By Pete Seeger

Grade 3

MULTICULTURAL

This book is a very cute book that is based on a Southern African lullaby and fairy tale. The book is about a giant who appears in a small South African town. He scared the people so much and they would run and hide. There was nothing that would make Abiyoyo go away except a little boy and his ukelele. What was interesting is no one in the town could stand the little boy playing his ukelele so he and his father were forced to live on the edge of town (his dad was disliked because of his magic tricks) but the playing of the ukelele drew the giant in. One day the boy and his father went out and they found Abiyoyo. The boy started to play his ukelele and the giant was drawn in and started to dance. The boy started to play faster and the giant started dancing faster and got out of breath. He then staggered and fell down on the ground and then the father was able to make him disappear with his magic. The once disliked boy and his father were now heroes in their town. They no longer cared if the boy played his ukelele. This would be a great book to include when multicultural books are being covered within the classroom. I think it would be interesting for students to compare and contrast Abiyoyo with another multicultural book by using a double bubble map or vein diagram.