Does this sound like a good children's story?

It sounds very interesting.

Soccer isn’t child’s play in any Spanish culture that I know of. Other than that, it sounds fine. It could be a dilemma, but don’t call it child’s play.

@Sunny2 well, Argentine people are known to be a little snobby. So I kind of made Andreas a snobby boy that’s really uptight who would never participate in anything other than dancin or fancy events. That’s why I called it that, as if he’s not able to just be a kid and play soccer because he never grew up around that.

@blueberry_kid : Sounds good. But I second what @Sunny2 said about soccer. I think that would be alienating to your target audience.

If Andreas is a snob, maybe you can introduce a class element into the conflict. Maybe Andreas’ parents wouldn’t want him playing soccer with Diego’s team because they are lower class or street kids…?

I agree that it might alienate your audience. Many of the children reading the book probably play or love watching soccer. If the children are underpriviliged keep in mind what type of dilemmas they have. What age group are they?

If your teacher is more concerned with your ability to write well in Spanish, grammar, spelling, etc., then the actual story content might not matter much. What are you actually getting graded on?

That’s a really tough assignment. Writing children’s literature is not as easy as the simple-looking texts make it seem, never mind writing it in your second language and basing it in another culture. I’d advise keeping your story pretty basic and not trying to make too much of a moral lesson out of it.

@JLeslie @Jeruba The assignment is supposed to have 10 cultural aspects based on the country assigned, and is supposed to have a positive message or a moral to the story. It could be a folktale, but I don’t know how I should do that considering I don’t know much about Argentina. It would’ve been easier if I had Puerto Rico or Honduras. It’s being donated to poor Hispanic kids and it must be original. A power point with music is encouraged, but not necessary. It’s graded on originality, neatness, organization and grammar.

@bookish1 Would it be okay to make him a dancer, but then in the end he just want to be a soccer player? And then his parents learn to accept his choices is through his dedication?

@blueberry_kid Wow. That is such a difficult assignment. What if your main character is a kid from the poor areas and he sneaks out to take dance lessons while all his friends are playing soccer in the streets? Kind of reverse it a little, so the children can identify with the main character. Maybe a very nice dance teacher gives him shoes and at first he is self conscious around the other children knowing they are from the upper classes, but he is a fantastic dancer and earns their respect? Maybe his friends where he lives tease him, but his parents are proud of him? Or, his parents might not support him and tell him it is a waste of time he will never be accepted. The moral is to follow your dream. I don’t want to write it for you obviously, just trying to work with your idea and target audience. At my ballet school we had a stash of shoes and leotards, they were second hand, but had been cleaned. Children grow out of things so fast that many times their shoes are still in very good condition, parents would donate the items to the dance school. Children who didn’t have the money were given these things and a much much reduced fee for classes. I’m not saying it should be ballet, it could be tango as you suggested which is very Argentinian.

Obviously, it would help you to read up a little more on traditions and customs in Argentina, I’m sure you plan to. Maybe you can incorporate some of the traditional foods, if they do siesta (I don’t know of they do), I’m sure if you read up a little it will become much easier to put something together.

Well, maybe the cultural aspects you study should include what their culture’s values are. If, say, obedience to parents is an important value, then your story goes against it by putting the child first and rewarding defiance of parents’ wishes.

At a really basic level, you should know whether the culture is an individualist or a collectivist society because that determines how they will tend to feel about someone who supports the group versus someone who goes his own way in opposition to the will of the group.

Poor families in any culture are going to give a high priority to fulfilling survival needs. Dancing lessons and organized sports may both be luxuries pretty far outside the bounds of their reality. That’s a first-world dilemma, wouldn’t you say? A hungry kid is going to be thinking about food ahead of most everything else.

If it’s to be a story about daydreams (much as we in the U.S. might view, say, Disney stories about little princesses, which simply don’t exist in our society), then go ahead and make it fanciful instead of realistic. Here’s where a folktale-type story that teaches a universal lesson such as honesty or loyalty or bravery might be a good solution.

P.S. If it’s the parents who learn and change and adapt, then whose story is it?

@Jeruba Great points. That’s part of what I was thinking when I mentioned the parents could show support and make the conflict more among the children.

@blueberry_kid I think one thing to look out for in the research is cultural norms might be quite different between the classes, and some essays may not clearly address that. Argentina has many Italians and Germans who emigrated there. Probably they make up the middle and upper classes more than the poor, but check me. Their national heritage probably influences their customs as a subgroup within the country.

Queen Rania of Jordan wrote a children’s book based on a true story called the Sandwich Swap where she trades with a classmate a hummus sandwich for a PB&J sandwich. It might give you some ideas. It isn’t a social class story, but it is a cultural differences story.