I loved learning one of the possible origins of maneki-neko. The story of the beckoning cat is similar to many Western folktales where a poor person shows kindness to an animal and is rewarded for it. This makes it a good introduction to Japanese folktales (some of which can be very weird).

I love everything Ed Young does, and I like this folktale. It’s simple but makes you think about the bigger picture.

Before reading this text, I was unfamiliar with the Chinese folktale. The story tells the tale of Mr. and Mrs. Haktak and their magic pot - a pot that will give them two of everything. This story is so clever and teaches young readers about modesty. I would incorporate this book into a writing center! I would allow students to write about what they might want to drop into the pot, or if they would want to use it all! This book could also be incorporated into math lessons to help students learn about doubles. One such activity calls for the usage of a mirror, so students can actually visualize what doubling is. This activity can be found here: https://illuminations.nctm.org/Lesson.aspx?id=3294

Lexile - AD620L

DRA - 30

AR - 3.5

Genre:  Math / India / Folktale / Royalty

Year Published: 1997

Year Read:  2011

Publisher: Scholastic Press

I have read many books by world-renowned children’s book author, Demi, but I have not gotten around to reviewing any of Demi’s books yet. “One Grain of Rice” is the first book by Demi that I am reviewing and it is a folktale from India that is about a young woman named Rani who tries to trick the raja of India into giving her more rice than is needed during a famine. “One Grain of Rice” is truly a worthy folktale that will be loads of fun for children!

When Demi stated in the title of this book that this is a clever tale, she was not kidding! Demi has done an excellent job at both illustrating and writing this clever story that is full of pure wit! What really stood out for me in Demi’s writing was how Demi portrayed the main character Rani as a clever and independent heroine of the story as Rani uses her wits and her talented use of mathematics as a way to teach the raja a lesson he will never forget! I also loved the way that Demi uses mathematics as a major plot device in this book as it helps children learn more about mathematics and Demi made this book even more helpful for children by providing a chart at the back of the book about how Rani doubled each number per day, so you do not have to necessarily use a calculator to work out the formula used by Rani, but you can use a calculator if you want to teach your child about how to work out the problems on their own. Demi’s illustrations are extremely beautiful in this book as she uses watercolor painting to illustrate the characters and the landscapes. My favorite images in this book are of Rani herself as she is a truly beautiful looking character as she wears a gorgeous Indian red dress and has flowing black hair that touches her back. I also enjoyed the images of all the animals that were being used when they were delivering the rice to Rani and the image that truly stood out for me was the image of the elephants bring Rani the rice in baskets as the page is folded out and you can see hundreds of elephants waking across the page.

Overall, “One Grain of Rice” is a truly wonderful and clever folktale for children who love folktales from India and want to learn about mathematics in a creative way! I would recommend this book to children ages five and up since the mathematical approach in this story might be too difficult for smaller children to understand.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

One Grain of Rice is a visually amazing book which tells the story of a young girl who, by way of some brilliant math, solves the famine in her village one grain of rice at a time. I would use this book in my classroom during a discussion about doubling, multiplication, or to strike interest in my students for the importance of math in everyday situations. This book would, in most cases, be best used as a read aloud as it does have a higher reading level than interest level. This book has a Scholastic Reading Grade Level Equivalent of 4.2.