Caroline Pitcher

A lonely old woman named Mariana, living by herself in a tiny seaside hut, is given a very special gift in this traditional Chilean tale, gracefully retold by Caroline Pitcher, and beautifully illustrated by Jackie Morris. Longing for company, but seemingly unable to befriend the local village children; loving the sea, but fearful of the howling sea-wolves who would emerge during stormy weather, Mariana spent her days alone. Until the morning, that is, that she found a lovely little show more red-haired merchild washed up on shore, and - with the mother Sea Spirit's permission - became its foster-mother. Mariana loved the merchild more than anything in the world, and took great joy in caring for her, although she knew that one day her charge must return to the sea. Would she be more alone than ever, when that day came, or would the coming of the merchild change Mariana's life in a more permanent way...?

Taken from Brenda Hughes' Folk Tales from Chile, this wonderful story addresses so many important themes - childless women, and how they are perceived in society; the elderly, and how they interact with the young; our relationship to the natural world, and how we both depend upon it for our very lives, and are vulnerable to its extremes - in an oblique, rather than didactic fashion. The story itself is quite appealing - who doesn't love the idea of discovering a magical being, and befriending it - and the illustrations are gorgeous! Jackie Morris - whose Tell Me a Dragon is likewise beautiful - has a style that seems ideally suited for fantastic tales. Highly recommended to all young folklore enthusiasts, mermaid lovers, and Jackie Morris fans! show less

This is a beautiful book. It has lovely pictures of horses - a mare and her foal, plus a few other horses. It has a sweet message: A youngster will grow up and be unafraid when the mom will leave for work because the mom will later return. It is a simple metaphor for a child's growing independence. It's lovely to read as well because the foal asks real questions which can be very important to a child: Where was his mother? What's that noise? Will you be there with me? I liked reading this show more book to my 2 1/2-year old grandson who has been entrusted to my care while his own mom is at work. I think my grandson and I were both reassured by this story. show less

In this book, Mariana is a lonely woman who lives by the sea who finds and takes care of a merchild. The merchild attracts the attention of the young people of the town, whom Mariana has always wanted to befriend. Eventually, she has to give the merchild back to her mother in the sea, but they still get to see each other. Even more importantly, she forges friendships with the young people who live near her. This is a wonderful story about loneliness and the importance of friendship and show more taking care of each other. I love how the illustrations capture traditional Chilean life. show less

The Littlest Owl, is about a family of five owls, the mother and four babies. Once the babies hatched their shells they quickly discovered baby number four was smaller than the rest. Throughout the story we learn number four struggles to progress like its siblings especially when it comes to flying. One night a large storm comes and about breaks the tree in which they live. Finally, since four never gave up when it was pivotal to fly four accomplished it.
Personally I could relate to this show more book because I remember as a child wondering if my little brother would catch up to his friends. He was always smaller and slightly behind the curve. As he grew so did his abilities and eventually he caught up and surpassed a lot of his friends. I think this book teaches the readers an important lesson in not giving up if at first you don’t succeed.
Perseverance is something I feel today’s youth lacks on; therefore, I feel like this book would be a good way to introduce this topic. I think there would be a good art project that could be done through this. In one class I took the teacher asked us to trace our hand and fill it with things that represent us. I think this could be applied here by having the children fill the hand with things that they want to achieve, thus giving them a time to reflect on this concept. Another way in which we could incorporate this book in to the classroom would be to do a lesson on descriptive words. This book is full of words describing the owls, nature, and disposition. I think this would be a good way to ask students to pick out the words used to describe the owls, maybe through a work sheet or on the board.
Overall, I found this book to be very cute and easy to read. It had a clear them about nature and the process from egg to adult owl and introduced different idea about the struggles we all go through. The theme was carried out from the beginning to the end. Great book! show less