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Children's Book Wins Acclaim
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A book about an African-American family that practices Nichiren Buddhism has been added to the reading list for elementary school students in the largest school district in Ohio, U.S.A.; the Cleveland Municipal School District.
SGI-USA member M. LaVora Perry wrote Taneesha's Treasures of the Heart based on her own experience of being bullied in elementary school. The book describes the friendship between Taneesha and her friend Carli, who is bullied because of her physical disability. With faith, the children overcome the situation and develop a friendship with the bullying child.
LaVora Perry has won awards for her writing and contributes to the "Friends for Peace" children's pages of the SGI-USA newspaper, the
World Tribune. She has also written an e-book, Wu-lung and I-lung, based on a Buddhist parable about life and death. The illustrations in that book, by artist Norio Saneshige, won a 2003 Addy Award in Canton, Ohio.
Taneesha's Treasures of the Heart has received considerable attention from teachers and bookstores, and was featured on National Public Radio's Tavis Smiley show on July 23. Activities for teaching based on the book include a personal bullying experience writing activity, a "Treasures of the Heart" project and an exercise comparing Buddhism to a religion of the child's choosing.
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