My Rows and Piles of Coins

I read My Rows and Piles of Coins by Tololwa M. Mollel. This book received the Coretta Scott King Award in 2000. This book was absolutely adorable. It's a multicultural, and it's setting is in Tanzania. There are even words in the story that are in the Tanzanian languages of Swahili and Maasai. The story is about a young boy, Saruni, who gets money for helping his mother in the market. Saruni has been saving a long time to buy a bicycle to be able to help his mother even more. Saruni saves up what he feels like is enough to buy a bicycle, but when he goes to buy one that man selling them laughs at him and his little amount of money. In the end, Saruni's father buys a motorbike for Saruni. Saruni is so grateful for the motorbike and how it will be able to help his mother. Saruni decides to save his money for a cart to be able to help his mother even more. I love this story because even though Saruni could have saved his money for something he wanted, he decided to save it to help his mother. Just such a heartfelt story, and I love how the illustrations really bring the Tanzanian culture to life. The appropriate grade level for this book would be first grade to sixth grade. I would definitely use this book in my future classroom to introduce the math lesson about saving money.

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