Where Hummingbirds Come From Bilingual Hebrew English

by Adele Marie Crouch, Megan Gibbs (Illustrator), Orna Taub (Translator)

Fantasy, folklore, and magic fill the air as a young girl's grandmother relates a legend of Where Hummingbirds Come From. Grandmother explains the magic waters and the beauty of this tiny bird. Where Hummingbirds Come From may well become an all-time children's classic and a perfect book for the young reader. As well as a wonderful study guide for English as a second language students. Hebrew is a language native to Israel. Hebrew had ceased to be an everyday spoken language somewhere between 200 and 400 CE. Then, in the 19th century, it was revived as a spoken and literary language, and, per Ethnologue, had become, as of 1998, the language of 5 million people worldwide. After Israel, the United States has the second largest Hebrew-speaking population, with 220,000 fluent speakers, mostly from Israel. The Hebrew language is the only living Canaanite language left. This is because it was revived as a spoken language beginning in the late 19th century.

Genres: Childrens

50 pages, Paperback

First published April 27, 2010

Reviews

[Sandra Stiles · Rating 5 out of 5]

The illustrations in this book are absolutely beautiful. A young girl sits with her grandmother and listens to her tell a story passed down from her own grandmother. The story is about where hummingbirds come from. According to the story they come from some magic water around the grandmother’s house and they and the water appeared around the grandmother’s birthday. This is a great story shared from one generation to another. It shows the importance of sharing stories with our grandchildren, knowing that one day they may pass them on to their children.
This book has been translated into several languages, making it a true bilingual book that children of many languages can enjoy while either learning English, or learning their native language.

[Chelsea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was very cute, and both my daughter and I enjoyed it. I would actually rate it 3.5 stars, but obviously I'm unable to do that here. Although the story was very cute, it read just a little 'broken' for lack of a better word. I think mostly I tripped over all of the "grandmother said" parts in the book. The pictures of the hummingbirds were fantastic! I did feel that the pictures of people were not overly appealing, but certainly not crude either. My daughter enjoyed it more than I did (obviously, as this is a children's book), and would have probably rated it a 4 or 4.5.

[Yongcui Huang · Rating 5 out of 5]

This little story has the perfect balance of warmth and family, mystery and myth, and made for a fun and enjoyable bedtime.

[Rosemary Daly · Rating 3 out of 5]

A delightful first reader for anyone learning the Spanish language.