What Teachers Say

Teachers and Administrators comment on
Hoopoe Books and Curriculum

“I’d like to pass on how truly impressed all of us in the program—the teachers as well as the participating students and their families—are with the beautiful Hoopoe books and the expert curricula and other educational guidance Hoopoe provided.”
—Heidi Szobota, Director, Early Childhood Lab. School, Housatonic Community College, Bridgeport, CT.

“The books, CDs and activity guides we get from Hoopoe Books are perfect for our special nights. The teachers love the ideas and integrate them into their curriculum. The children love the read along CD and the fact that they get to take the book home. The parents love that they get a chance to participate with their child and know that good memories and good learning are happening when families read together. As an administrator I love the quality of the books themselves. The way the packets are put together and the choice of quality literature enhance our program in many ways. It is also a huge plus that the books come in English and Spanish.”
—Alayne Stieglitz, Site Supervisor, Holy Family Day Home, San Francisco, CA

“The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water is a lesson in humility and empathy. This story talks about how some things can be misinterpreted. What it does is support social and emotional development,”
—Burney, a teacher for Higher Horizons Head Start, Falls Church, VA

“The Hoopoe Books and Lesson Plans are carefully designed to show effective ways of defining and responding to everyday situations. Students learn to tie educational learning to common experiences and apply real life solutions to abstract circumstances. The program provides motivation to problem solve and discuss plots, characters and imagery, patterns and relationships. Measurable results of students are tabulated and include participation and academic improvement.”
—Shirley Jackert, Executive Director, Camp Fire USA - Long Beach, CA

“The content of the stories was excellent. They all provided opportunities to learn more about the literacy traditions of other cultures and to explore new ways to engage children in literacy activities.”
—W. Robles de Melendez Program Prof. of Early Childhood Ed Nova
Southeastern University,
Miami Beach, FL

“The students enjoyed the story while listening to me read the story and then listening to the story on CD. The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water was interesting and kept the students’ attention from the beginning to the end of the story. They loved the colorful illustrations of all the animals.”
—Debbie Oliver, PreK/Kindergarten Teacher, Clyde Arbuckle Elementary School, Alum Rock Union School District (San Jose, CA)

“The staff and I are very impressed by the depth of the stories and how the same books can be used by different ages with different “teaching lessons.” the teacher guides are a great resource because they give concrete extension activities that can be used by novice and experienced teachers.”
—Lisa Quan, Former Director, Albany Children’s Center, CA

“The instructional materials and books were of excellent quality. Our staff enjoyed reading the books to the children and conducting the recommended activities.”
—Beverley R. Taub, Ph.D., Categorical Program Manager, Fremont Unified School District, CA

“This was a wonderful training; it kept me focused and provided such valuable information - the rewards are tremendous. I love the ideas of ‘teaching-stories’.”
—Teacher from Kno-Ho-Co Ashland, Ohio

“Parents, children and teachers all responded enthusiastically to the books, CDs and follow up activities. Parents were especially thrilled by the bright artwork in the books, and many spoke of how the stories reminded them of stories from their childhood. For teachers, the explicit follow up activities – sequencing, watermelon tasting, sorting – fit well in the existing curriculum. For children, the richness of the stories came through with their many requests for repeated readings.”
—Louise Rosenkrantz, Early Childhood Literacy Coach, Berkeley Unified School District, CA

“The Hoopoe materials are just the tools we needed to further our goal of family literacy. Many of our children have very few books at home, much less books in Spanish, and the CDs will even help parents who are not literate still help their children learn to read.”
—Curriculum education manager, Amy Donahue, Rosemount Center, Washington, DC

“The Lion Who Saw Himself in the Water engages the children not only with its story, but also with its beautiful illustrations. And it teaches them valuable lessons about fear and how others see us.”
—Jan Ellis, Michigan Department of Education

“These books share not only wonderful folk stories from a region not often represented in current children’s literature, but there is also an innate potential in them for supporting skills such as prediction, critical thinking, and social/emotional development skills of demonstrating empathy and conflict resolution. This is all done with humor, bold attractive art and a strategic use of vocabulary.”
—Laurie Noe, Ed.D., Director of Education, Literacy Caravan,Weston CT

“I received numerous calls from schools telling me how much they enjoyed passing out the books. The books are beautiful and truly unique cultural treasures for our students. In addition, it has been such a pleasure working with your professional staff. Everyone was so helpful and positive.”
—Sharon DeAngelo, Curriculum and Instruction, Alum Rock Union Elementary School District, San Jose, CA

“They are incredibly beautiful and well-written books and unique and it’s wonderful to be able to give books that feature stories and people from Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the Middle East. It is certainly extremely important and timely to introduce these stories now given the world situation.”
—Jinnie Spiegler Vice President for Programs, Learning Leaders, New York, NY

“Our teachers were thrilled to receive a comprehensive package. Our literacy coaches typically write classroom and family activities that support each book we pass out to students as part of our Family Literacy Campaign. They were excited by the time saved with your quality activities for the teachers and students to enjoy.”
—Ching-Pei Hu, Literacy Coordinator, Ravenswood City School District, CA

Hoopoe books help children develop an understanding
of themselves and the world around them.

From thinking children come thinking adults.