The Car Washing Street-Multicultural and International Literature

            The Car Washing Street by Denise Lewis Patrick is about a diverse community that comes together for a day in the sun!  In this book we see a group of neighbors who come from different family styles and backgrounds to become one and help each other in what they call a car wash.  The story starts off with a young boy (Mathew) jumping out of bed to the sounds of his neighbor Mr. Henry getting set up to wash his car.  Although Mathew’s parents don’t have a car he still loves sitting on his front porch and watching the rest of his neighbors washing theirs.  As Mathew admires what is going on the reader can see just how diverse his street is.  There is Mr. Henry washing his car, Junior Boy trying to find some music to play, Mrs. Kennedy washing her pink Cadillac, and the Rodriguez family soaping up their old station wagon.  As one can see there are many different family types and backgrounds.  As all the families are hard at work, the day’s sun continues to get more and more hot and the people begin to get tired and weary.  What will happen on the car-washing street when everybody’s spirits are down?  Just then Junior Boy accidentally splashes Mr. Henry and soon a huge water fight breaks out!  Mathew and his dad decide to play along too and soon everybody is cooled down, happy and ready to finish washing the cars.  When the day is almost over the neighborhood comes together for an afternoon snack and some good old conversations and laughter on the steps of Mathews house.  I really enjoyed reading this book because one can see that although we are all diverse and different in our own way, we can still be friends and come together as one community.  Although this book takes place on one street it shows community in many ways.  It shows that it is important to get to know one another for who they really are, not just for what they look like or for where they are from, and it shows that if you are willing to give a helping hand it can really change somebody’s day!  This would be a great book for third graders to read because it shows what it means to be part of a community and it incorporates diversity along with that.  One activity that could go along with this book is have each student create a short presentation about one activity they like to do within their own community.  I would explain to the students that they can bring in pictures, stories, anything to show to the class, which will help explain what community activity is special to them and why!  This activity would help students work on presentation skills, it would allow them to hear about how different communities work, and it would give them a chance to share about their own experiences to others.  In doing this activity I would also be very careful in explaining to students that if they didn’t have a specific activity that they do with their own community they could make one up that they might like to do.  This is important because some students might not live near other people or some might not have the opportunity to meet the others around.