Title: Orange Peel’s Pocket
Author: Rose Lewis
Illustrator: Grace Zong
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers
Concepts: goods, services, natural resources, human resources, capital resources
Review: Chan Ming, nicknamed Orange Peel, was born in China, but is growing up in the United States. When her kindergarten class studies China, she is embarrassed by her inability to answer her classmates’ questions about her country of origin. She decides to learn more about the country where she was born by asking familiar adults who also came from China. Together with her mom, she visits a tailor, a poet and antique dealer, a florist, a noodle maker, and a woman who works at an ice cream shop. After visiting her friends, Orange Peel discovers that each one slipped a special cultural artifact into her pocket. Ultimately, Orange Peel uses the gifts to teach her kindergarten friends what she learned about China.
In addition to learning more about Orange Peel’s cultural heritage, readers can identify the goods and services produced by each of her friends. The text and illustrations also provide an opportunity for students to categorize the productive resources each adult uses as part of his/her job. This is a very sweet story with lovely illustrations.
Review by: Rutgers University Project on Economics and Children