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ANOTHER WONDERFUL OFFERING FROM DEMI

Customer Rating:
This wonderful Indian folk tale is brought to life by some wonderful illustrations and art work. Demi is one of the better illustrators, and indeed, writers of children's books active today. I do not know of one book by this author that is not a complete delight to the eye and ear.

This is a story of a "Wise Raja" and how he is tricked by a little girl. This ruler made the decision one day that he must gather all the rice in the land and store it away for future use. He left the poor people of the land in a state of starvation while he feasted at his palace from his over filled store houses. One day some grains of rice fall from the basket being carried to the Raja's home and a little girl gathers them up, but instead of keeping the rice, she returns it to the wise ruler. As a reward, he offers her anything she wants. She asks for one grain of rice. The Raja more or less insists she ask for more, so she tells him she would like one grain of rice, but would like to have it doubled every day for thirty days. The first day, one grain, the second two, the third four, and the fifth eight...and so on until the last day. You do the math. Needless to say at the end of the thirty days, the little girl has all the rice and the Raja has none.

This is an interesting story and an excellent lesson in math, in greed, in giving and in compassion, all wrapped up in one small book. The illustrations consists of full page pictures done in the style of India and is sprinkled with traditional miniature paintings as well. The detail and vivid colors are a feast for the eye.

This book seems to fascinate children. I have noted that they pull it form the shelf and set and read and look at the pictures over and over again. As an adult, I know I see something different each time I read the thing to a class. The children are absolutely amazed when it finally dawns on them what the little girl has done and it makes quite an impact when they realize the power of numbers. This is a great read-a-long book as you can give a mini math lesson and a moral lesson at the same time. I never tire reading it. To be honest, the pictures are worth the price of the book alone.

Don Blankenship
The Ozarks

Great book!

Customer Rating:
My daughters are 7 and 8 and they love this book. It was a great story and something to keep in our home for a long time.

Reading in high school math

Customer Rating:
I teach high school algebra and found that the addition of children's literature enhances my curriculum. I used this book when we began exponential functions. I read the first part to my students and then had them fill in a chart telling how many grains of rice she received each day for 30 days and ultimately come up with a formula. The book itself is beautiful and even high schoolers enjoyed it. (After the math activity, they asked me to finish the book. :)

Great book for all ages, really!

Customer Rating:
I have purchased 5 copies of this book - one for my kids and the rest as gifts. I've also suggested it to others to give children as gifts. My older son is 2 1/2 years old and he enjoys this book. Certainly, I can expect an older child, around 5 or older, to get more of the mathematical detials from the book, but my son likes it too.

Instead of reading the numbers aloud, I show him that Rani shared the single grain of rice with this bird, 2 grains with that peacock.. the bagful of rice with the tiger... etc. He loves it. The illustrations are outstanding!! I always feel like I'm reading a book from the "royal" archives when I pick this up.

Enjoy!

A lot to learn, including girl-power

Customer Rating:
This is Demi's re-telling of an old folktale of a king who orders that all rice in his kingdom must be stored in the royal granaries so that there would be food in times of famine; but when his people start to go hungry, he refuses to open the granaries, claiming that the situation was not bad enough to warrant doing so - until a small child outsmarts him by asking for a grain of rice doubled every day for a month.

I love this book because there is a lot to be learned from it. Of course, there is the math: the concept of doubling and how quickly doubling makes the numbers grow. There is the art: lovely Indian-inspired illustrations with stunning gold effects. There are also moral lessons, namely that power can corrupt, and that even a small child can teach a mighty king.

Then, there is a special lesson for all little girls everywhere - that girls can do math. After all, the math-smart hero of the story is a little girl herself.