Tony Johnston
In our second grade homeroom Mr. Sprau locates picture books with great potential as literature for building character in his students. Recently he incorporated two such books in his morning openings on the theme of “helpfulness”. In the first book, Amber lives on a mountain isolated from other children and schools. She longs to learn to read...
Amber lived on a mountain so high, it poked through the clouds like a needle stuck in down. Trees bristled on it like porcupine quills. And the air made you giddy - it was that clear. Still, for all that soaring beauty, Amber was lonesome. For mountain people lived scattered far from one another.
A man comes on horseback to teach people to read, He soon leaves because mountain life is too hard for him. So he skedaddled before Amber could learn. But another man comes with his wife and daughter, Anna, to build a road. Amber’s Granny Cotton tells the man straight out, “You can’t build a road here. Folks will roll clean off it, like walking up a wall.”
But the man said, “You can do almost anything you fix your mind on.”
Amber was too shy to meet Anna at first, but as she watched...Anna lay flopped on her stomach in a meadow, reading a book. The sky was streaked with morning. The air was warm. The grass hummed with bees. Suddenly, up jumped Anna shouting, “Once upon a time…” and hopping around, crazy as a doodlebug.
Amber decided it was the right time to say “hey.”
From then on Anna is determined to teach Amber to read. She says, My daddy says you can do almost anything you fix your mind on. I just fixed mine on teaching you to read!
The story relays how Anna helps Amber overcome her struggles as she learns to read and also how the two girls help Granny with her quilting. Later on, Amber is also determined to learn to write.
You can see from the directly quoted portions above how entrancing the story-telling is. The paintings of the mountain region by Robert Duncan make this a nice option for a gift.
In the next blog post I’ll share the other book from Mr. Sprau’s opening time called The Tower.
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