Hosni the DreamerSummary: "Hosni, a shepherd living in the desert, finally realizes his dream of traveling to the city where he spends his gold dinar in a way which changes his life forever."
Strengths: The beautiful illustrations in this picture book describing an Arabian tale provide a beautiful color palette of warm colors to remind the reader of the setting and culture. The illustrations, especially those in the city, provide insight into the lives of the people in the story with beautifu designs. I like that the story encourages individualism, travel, and adventures. The story also relays the important message that material things are not essential and that listening and knowledge are more important. In addition, the message that making fun of people leads to unfortunate circumstances.
Concerns: The story starts off with the word, sheikh, which students may not know. If they are reading on their own, they may be confused and concerned that they will not understand the story. Teachers should be sure to go over any of these vocabulary words before starting or make sure the students know that they can use context clues or a dictionary to look up any unknown words. In addition, some of the characters in the book drown, which may be a touchy subject in class, depending on the maturity of the students.
Classroom Use/Other Comments: This book would be great for younger children, aged 4-8 as a book to which to listen and to possibly compare the city and the country. Older children, aged 8-10 could read this on their own as an examination of different traditional tales, as an exploration of different cultures, or just for fun. The story also introduces different vocabulary, like sheikh, pilaf, halvah, wadi, and dinar, which will expand the childrens' vocabularies.
No comments:
Post a Comment