Grandfather Counts by Andrea Cheng - Multicultural Literature

The book is about a girl named Helen's grandfather, Gong Gong, who came from China to live with her family. He is very shocked and slightly disappointed to find that none of his grandchildren can speak Chinese. He is stumped on how is going to communicate with them. One day he goes with Helen to watch trains go by. Gong Gong starts to count the trains in Chinese. Helen repeats all the words she hears her grandfather say. She is trying to pick up on his Chinese. Helen then says the numbers back to her grandfather in English to help him learn a little too. Throughout the book they continue to help each other to overcome the language barrier. This is a wonderful book because their or several different languages all around the world. It is important for students to know that they will run across language barriers in life but can still communicate with the right approach. We could discuss as a class the different approaches to take when faced with a communication barrier.