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| Picture courtesy of Amazon.com |
Author: Gerald McDermott
Illustrator: Gerald McDermott
Genre: Folktales, Myths
Publisher: Puffin Books
Copyright Date: 1974
Pages: 40 Pages
Awards: Caldecott Medal
Summary: There is a boy who is born from the sun, and he goes on a quest to find his father because he is constantly being teased for not having a father. He travels and asks many people for help to find his father, and eventually meets an arrow maker who transforms him and launches him into the sun. While back at the sun and has to prove himself by passing four series of tests: the Kiva of Lions, the Kiva of Serpents, The Kiva of Bees, and the Kiva of Lightning. These are all things the boy is afraid of. After when the boy has persevered the Lord acknowledges him as his son. Then the boy gets sent back to earth where he can share the sun spirit with man.
Educational Purpose: One way to use this book would be to teach students about metaphors. In the book the boy gets turned into an arrow, but obviously he is not really an arrow, but he is like an arrow. You would want to have a discussion with your students and give them lots of other examples so they had a strong foundation to build on. Then you could have students pick an object that they are like. Next you would have students create a short story with an illustration.
Grade Level: (Kindergarten-Third Grade) This book is more of a picture book and you would need to help students understand some of the vocabulary before reading. Words like Kiva and pueblo are new so you would need to introduce and show examples so students can understand the story better. I would recommend some background information for your students before reading this book. Lexile 480L.
Ratings:
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Comments
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Plot
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Excellent plot that is clever and has many surprising twists.
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Good plot that has some surprises.
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This is an okay plot that is kinda interesting.
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Loose plot with many holes, and fails to grab the reader’s attention.
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Good plot, had me engaged and eager to find out who the boys father is.
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Character
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Excellent characterization. The characters are complex and provide a strong emotional impact on the reader.
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The characters are believable and the reader can relate to them, and feel an emotional tie to the characters.
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The characters are lacking but likable. There is some emotional attachment to the characters.
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The characters are poorly described, and leave the reader feeling detached from the book.
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As a reader you will feel an emotional draw to the boy and feel bad that he has to jump through all these hoops for his father to claim him.
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Illustration
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Excellent illustrations. Very detailed, creative, and connected to the book.
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Illustrations were good and showed something important about the book.
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The illustrations were okay, they were not very creative.
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There was no illustrations, or they were not interesting.
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Amazing illustrations, and a great way to introduce a different culture.
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Recommendation
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Excellent book that I highly recommend having in your classroom or library. This book will captivate, enchant, fascinate, and basically make you obsess about it.
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Good book that I recommend having in your classroom or library. The book was interesting and kept my interest and was overall very engaging.
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This book was okay. I believe this would be a book to check out from the library if you're feeling bored.
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This book was awful and I cannot recommend it for your classroom or library. This book will leave you wishing you could rewind time so you don’t read it.
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I would recommend this book. I feel like this is a great resource for teachers to have in their classroom.
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