Book guide: Kivi and the crying goraff
Book guide Kivi and the crying goraff
Are you a gorilla or a giraffe? No, the goraff is a goraff. A fun and fast-paced story with an important message. Kivi & the crying goraff is the sequel to the hit book about Kivi. A rhyming picture book where no one is gendered, everyone is hen!
Questions about will and speaking up
Kiwi is determined. Do you have any suggestions on how Kivi could get his family to listen to what he wants? How does it feel when someone doesn't listen to what you want?
Kiwi wants a gorilla. But there are no gorillas at the zoo. Instead, they find a giraffe. Have you ever wanted something that never works? What happened then? How did it feel? How did it turn out instead?
In the book, at first, there is no word for what the goraff is. How do you think it feels to not have one
name? How do you think the goraff felt before Kivi found him?
Kiwi gets angry at the zookeeper. Have you told someone you think is wrong or doing something stupid? How did it feel?
Questions about family
In the book, Aunt Jin tries to dress up as a gorilla to make Kivi happy. Have you done
something for someone in your family to make them happy? What usually makes you happy?
Kivi has both folders and pams, a maternal uncle and parvel pysers in his family. Can you count how many people are in Kivi's family? How many people are in your family?
Make a family star!
All children can make their own family star, start by putting a photo of the child in the center of the star and on each point of the star you can draw and write in the important people who are in the child's life. In this way, you make room for families with two mothers, two fathers, several parents, siblings, grandfather, a cat and yes, everyone different who is close to the child and is important.
Family norms
In the books about Kivi, Kivi's family is included and it is a big family with several new playful words. The family is our first belonging and having it positively and naturally reflected is extremely important for all children's self-esteem and self-image. Families look different. In Sweden, there are 1.2 million families with children under the age of 18. Three out of ten families are not nuclear families with mother-father-children, despite this the family norm is strong and many families are made invisible in films, books and newspapers. Approximately two out of ten families consist of one parent and one out of ten families have bonus parents. (SCA 2022)
The pre-school's mission is to reflect all different families in an obvious way. How can we adults do this? Instead of asking the children what are your mom and dad's names? Can we ask; who are in your family?
By changing and adding new words for family members, Kivi opens up that it is not the categories that are the most important, but what we ourselves define as family!
Hen
The word hen has been in the Swedish language since the 60s. The first book about our hero Kivi; Kivi & Monsterhund was published in 2012 and was the first children's book to use the pronoun hen instead of she or he. The debate about her to be or not to be was loud and filled with hatred. That's why author Jesper Lundqvist wrote the sequel Kivi and the crying Goraff as
raises questions about being something that many think does not exist, a goraff - to be hen. In a kind and respectful way, with this book we want to face the crappy words and hate that trans people and non-binary people are exposed to. In 2015, the word hen was included in the Swedish Academy's dictionary. Words matter and together
can we change for a society that is more open and inclusive!
The word he can be used when we don't know the pronoun or when it doesn't matter. People who want to be called hen do not feel like a girl or a boy but as non-binary, or like to be called hen because they are tired of the division and notions surrounding he and he. Children learn new words all the time and are as open as we adults allow them to be.
