Friday, January 4, 2019

A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare Pittman - OPTIONAL


A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare Pittman, 100 pages.  Delacorte Press, 1986.  $15.  

Content: G  

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (K-3), EL – OPTIONAL  

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE 

The peasant, Pong Lo, comes to the Emperor and asks for his daughter’s hand in marriage.  The Emperor is insulted that a lowly peasant thinks he is good enough to marry the princess, but before he can kill Pong Lo, the princess encourages the Emperor to employ him at the palace.  Eventually, Pong Lo’s cleverness and positive attitude win over the people of the palace and when Pong Lo saves the princess from an illness the Emperor offers him whatever he wants, except for the princess.  Pong Lo asks for one grain of rice, doubled every day for one hundred days and the Emperor could never have guessed what that would cost him.  

I totally enjoyed this story and loved Pong Lo’s determination and cleverness.  The illustrations were not very appealing, and I think they would deter kids from reading this book.  There is a long explanation about exponential values at the end which is very interesting and would make this book fun for a math class, but I’m unsure younger readers would be patient enough to read that part (it is about 30 pages of the book).  

C. Peterson    

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