We love Dalia’s Wondrous Hair by Laura Lacámara! This book was a delight to read aloud to my children this week. My daughter especially loved this book.
How would you summarize the book Dalia’s Wondrous Hair?
A little girl named Dalia is creating something magical in her hair. Her mother is supportive of this journey her daughter is taking even when the neighbors try and convince Dalia to clean her hair and give up. The setting is in a small city in Cuba. Dalia is a strong child that knows if she just continues following her instincts her hair will transform into something incredible. My children marveled at the end of this book.
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What is the best part of Dalia’s Wondrous Hair?
The love and support her mom gave the little girl was my favorite part of the book. I also loved how the publisher/ editor formatted the text to make it bilingual to show both Spanish and English words. I was able to read it to my children, and then later, my husband could reread it to them in Spanish to help them learn vocabulary. The additional text did not distract the reader or children and blended perfectly into the book while still being easy to read.
What activities can I do with my children after reading Dalia’s Wondrous Hair?
Sensory play is always fun for young learners. It is also a great time to have a book discussion with your child. I like to build our tuff tray together. This way, the fun is not after I have spent time creating it, but also while we are creative to retell the story through the design of a sensory bin together.
My daughter and I put together this sensory tray after reading the book using blue Epson salt, green chickpeas/legumes, and black buttons & rocks. I also cut out a picture of my daughter from when she was a baby to add to the tray. After going through all our favorite photos from our trip to Cuba more than three years ago, we found this picture.
Lastly, we decorated the wondrous hair using butterflies and made flowers around the tray. We were going to add a Cuban Royal Palm Tree but ran out of room.
We just started reading books about Cuba this week. I have a few more books ready for this week, but I’m struggling to find bilingual picture books set in Cuba. Hopefully I will be able to find, read, and create projects for more books from this beautiful country soon.
What other books can I read that connect to Dalia’s Wondrous Hair?
This book is perfect to use before or after reading All the Way to Havana by Margarita Engle and illustrated by Mike Curato. We used that book to compare and contrast settings. I used objects we collected from our trip to Cuba, photos from familia we visited, and read both books to my children. We then flipped through the books to talk about the illustrations and find similarities and differences between them.
Help Live Learn Literacy Grow with Book Recommendations
I would love to add more books from other nations to our collection. Do you have favorite books from around the world we should read and create projects with next? If so, please email me at ChrisC@MorenoMade.com or through Instagram @livelearnliteracy. I would love to read new books from new places and gain new insights from around the globe.
