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 1) Book Title: Belonging to Puerto Rico and America: New York Puerto Rican Children's Developing Conceptualization of Their Own Cultural Group – A Research Study (2009, Nova Science Publishers, Inc. - novapublishers.com)
This book is based on a study which investigates the developing conceptualization of twenty-four first, third, and fifth grade Puerto Rican children of their own cultural group. Unique to this study is the notion that, as children grow, they also develop a conceptualization of cultural group. This conceptualization begins early, within the first decade of life.
The children were able to conceptualize "Puerto Ricanness" at Global, Differentiated, Integrated, and Hierarchically Integrated levels and seven themes emerged in their descriptions of Puerto Ricanness:
• The importance of homeland
• The importance of family ties
• The importance of physical appearance
• The importance of language
• The importance of the specialness of Puerto Rican people
• The importance of prejudice
• The importance of safety
It is my hope that this research will help professors, teachers, and other interested adults, understand how children's thinking in a particular domain (cultural group conceptualization) develops with examples of the content of the children's thinking at each developmental level. It also offers examples of the children's thinking within each of the seven emergent cultural group themes.
 2) Book Title: Being Puerto Rican and American: Nuyorican Children's Voices – A Chapter Book for Children (2009, AEG Publishing Group/Eloquent Books - AEGpublishing group.com).
Twenty-four Puerto Rican children in the first, third, and fifth grades describe their thinking about Puerto RIcan people and their own experiences as Puerto Rican children living in New York City. How do they feel about being raised Puerto Rican in America? What do they think about people who are not Puerto Rican? How do they think everyone else perceives them? And, most importantly, what does it mean to be Puerto Rican?
These “Nuyorican” children (Puerto Rican children growing up in New York) eagerly share rich and important stories about their families, friends, and themselves. As intriguing and individual as the children that tell them, each story will help children and adults to understand and value their unique position in today’s society.
Chapters include:
FIRST GRADE
- Puerto Rican People Are Very, Very Smart (ANGEL)
- You Get to Be Puerto Rican by Staying in a Puerto Rican World (CONFESOR)
- When I Go to Puerto Rico, I'm All Puerto Rican (MAGALI)
- You Hve to Go to Puerto Rico a Lot to Be Puerto Rican (LOURDES)
- To Be Puerto Rican You Have to Practice Spanish (MELISANDE)
- Some Puerto Ricans Who Don't Even Know Each Other Help Each Other (LYDIA)
- Puerto Rican Is Special to Puerto Rican People (ROSALIA)
- Puerto Ricans Want to Stay in Every Spot (RAFAEL)
THIRD GRADE
- If You Want to Be Puerto Rican, You Should Know What Airplane to Go on (ROSA)
- I Learned about Being Puerto Rican Because I Just Guessed (MARELIN)
- Puerto Rican People Laugh So Much Because They're Happy (VICTOR)
- Most Puertyo Rican Girls Don't Have Babies (ANGELA)
- Puerto Rican People Treat People Sweet (ROBERTO)
- Most All Puerto Ricans Drink Beer (LIGIA)
- Puerto Rican People Have Funny Feet and Noses, Too
- It's Really Good to Be a Nuyorican (EMSO)
FIFTH GRADE
- What Is Special about Peurto Ricans Is...What's Inside (YRCANIA)
- Being Puerto Rican Is Like Having a Family That Stays Together (ROSALINA)
- Puerto Rico Is My Second Home, My Friend (LUIS)
- Puerto Rican People Are Not More Special Than Anyone Else (DARIO)
- I Don'tind Being Puerto Rican Because That's What God Intended (DIANERIS)
- Puerto Ricans Are Nicer on the Inside Than They Look on the Outside (RICARDO)
- Puerto Ricans Are Sensitive Like My Uncle (ELADIO)
- Puerto Ricans Are Like Theirself...Everybody's Different (ELANITA)
The original edition of this book is hard cover. A new soft cover version is due to come out this winter freaturing discussion questions to guide teachers and parents talk about the content of the children's stories.
TWO NEW BOOKS:
3) Book Title: Being Puerto Rican and American: Nuyorican Children's Voices with Suggestions for Discussion with Child Readers – A Chapter Book for Children (2012, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Company - www.sbpra.com)
Included in this edition are questions to help the child and adult reader notice, explore, and integrate their thoughts and feelings about the stories.
4) Book Title: Breathing the Same Air: Children, Schools, and Politics in Northern Ireland - A book about an American researcher's experience, during the Troubles, studying Catholic-school, Protestant-school, and integrated-school children's consciousness of cultural group membership in Northern Ireland. Added to the book is information about the impact of the Troubles on children in Northern Ireland, the divided cultural groups in Northern Ireland, cultural group socialization, and conceptualization among children in Northern Ireland. (2012, Strategic Book Publishing and Rights Company - www.sbpra.com).
Chapters include:
- "What are you doing here?": An American Researcher in Northern Ireland
- "He built a high wall": The Troubling Troubles and Divided Cultural Groups in Northern Ireland
- "Spring has forgotten this garden": The Impact of the Troubles on the Children in Northern Ireland
- "My own garden is my own garden": Cultural Group Socialization: The Children in Northern Ireland
- "They used to wander round that high wall": Consciousness and Conceptualization of Cultural Group: The Children in Northern Ireland
- "It sounded so sweet": The Integration of Cultural Groups in Northern Ireland: When Integrated Education in Northern Ireland Was New and Radical
- "Through a little hole in the wall, the children had crept in": The Children's Consciousness of Cultural Group Membership in Northern Ireland: School Group, Friendship Group, National and Religious Group
- "The children are the most beautiful flowers of all": Sustaining and Rethinking Integrated Education in Northern Ireland
- "The giant's heart melted": The Changing Story of Northern Ireland: Getting Past the "Troubles"
- "It was a lovely garden": When Research Becomes a Personal Story
Other Publications:
Jennifer Woods Pitkin and I have recently completed a series of fifteen picture books featuring the four Pitkin children's everyday experiences. These experiences will be familiar to young children as will be the thoughts and feelings of the main picture book characters:
BALLET GIRL
BEDROOM BOSS
THE OLDEST
GUM BALLS
THE PROJECT
NO PEAS FOR DINNER!
WHO CARES ABOUT NAUGHTY 3'S
TUTUS AND TOOL BELTS
WORRIES
TINY'S BIG ADVENTURE
FIRST DAYS AND POPSICLES
LETTERS
SISTERS
JAMAS, NIGHTGOWNS, AND SLEEPERS
SPIDERS ON THE CEILING
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