Your Place or Mine? Article Response

I have been around children's books for my entire life.  My own childhood is filled of memories of my mother reading to me, and since then my three younger siblings have enjoyed story time as well.  The article Your Place or Mine? presents an interesting way of analyzing children's books through the eyes of an art educator.  The authors focus on multicultural picture books and discuss the way children are exposed to the themes of place, culture/critical pedagogy and art through the values the books portray.  The book discussed in the article is titled Where Fireflies Dance, and is used as an example of how these themes fit into Mexican culture and how the illustrations enhance the experience of the reader.  In my years of being read children's books and of reading them myself, I was always distantly aware of the particular cultures and themes I encountered, however I never analyzed a book in the descriptive way that the article presents. I agree with the thoughts of the article about the benefits of integrated pedagogy in connecting many ideas to enhance the learning experience instead of solely focusing on one subject.  This approach will also allow students as well as educators to "integrate the students' own experiences and sense of local and historical place" (p. 119).  The students' own community can be a great resource of experiences for those who are inspired by the reflection of other cultures and groups.