By Allen Say
Chicken Sunday
By Patricia Polacco
By Patricia Polacco
Grades 1-4
4 Stars
This book tells the story of three children who find a way to earn enough money to buy Miss Eula a new Easter bonnet.
This book talks about many different traditions. The children have a tradition with Miss Eula of going to church and eating a chicken dinner with her every Sunday. Miss Eula has a tradition of buying a new Easter bonnet each year. The children earn money by painting eggs in the traditional Ukranian way. Miss Eula asks the children to pour some chicken soup over her grave after she has died so that she can taste it again, and as grown-ups, the children have turned this request into a yearly tradtion.
I loved this book. The relationship of the children with each other and Miss Eula was touching. The pictures are beautiful and incorporate real photographs on one page with the realistic drawings. I used this book to develop a unit on traditions, and it would be a great starting point in discussing the different kinds of traditions with students.
Kamishibai ManBy Allen Say
Grades K-6
5 Stars
This book tells the story of a Kamishibai man, a traditional story teller in Japan, who’s stories aren’t valued for awhile due to the rise of technology, such as television. He stops telling his stories for a long time, then decides to go out for one more day. The children, who he used to entertain are grown up, but remember him and ask him to tell the stories again.
This was a really cool book. The Kamishibai man tells his own story of how the “paper theater” stories fell out of favor with kids with the introduction of television. Say does this by having the Kamishibai man go out one last day to tell his stories. Say uses realistic paintings up until the point that the story begins, then the illustrations switch to a comic book style that tell the story of the Kamishibai man.
I also used this book in my traditions unit. It could also be used in a unit on storytelling.
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