Module 11

14 Cows for America

Summary:

September 11, 2001. Our nation was shaken to its core with the attack on the World Trade Center Buildings.  We rally around one another. A college student from Kenya was touched deeply by this event.  When he travelled home his people, Maasai always want to hear stories from America.  He tells the story and the people are visibly moved with compassion.  They want to give what they have.. Cows. “To the Maasai cow is life.”  They called them the comfort cows and in all they donated 14 cows. 

Citation:

Deedy, C. (2009). 14 Cows for America. Atlanta: Peachtree.

My Thoughts:

 September 11, 2001 shook our country. Moved does not even describe what I was feeling as I read this story. The fact that this country that has very little decides to give out of what they do have and they offer these cows. They gave the best they had. Deedy talks about how the Maasai are fierce warriors but yet gentle when someone is in need.  What a great reminder on the day of remebrance.  I really like the illustrations because they almost look real. They did not hold back either they gave the best to the cause.

Review:

While returning home to visit his remote Maasai village in Kenya, Naiyomah tells the members of his nomadic tribe about America, where he is in medical school, and the horror of 9/11: “Buildings so tall they can touch the sky? Fires so hot they can melt iron?” What can the Maasai do to help thousands of souls lost? Unlike in the picture book Muktar and the Camels (2009), also set in East Africa, the tone here is too reverential, and the characters have little individual identity. But based on Naiyomah’s true experiences, the words and the glowing mixed-media illustrations show empathy and connections across communities, with close-up portraits of the Maasai on the savannah at work with their cows under the open sky, their rituals, their sorrow for New York’s tragedy, and their heartfelt generosity. In a reversal from the usual international aid story, here it is the U.S. that gets help from a developing country as the villagers donate 14 sacred cows to America.

— Hazel Rochman

Activities:

Read aloud on September 11^th.

Talk about what the students would be willing to give up.