Customer Reviews

A Grain of Rice

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great story for teaching how something as small as a grain of rice can earn a farmer a marriage to the princess, and a kingdom. Multiplication is used in the book, and can spring into a math lesson for teachers and parents alike. It is most likely to interest 4th and 5th grade children.

Multiplicaton pays the bills .He wants to marry the princess,but he is a peasant. See how Pong Lo wins the right to marry her by using his math skills. Wonderful story about an old culture and about how smart people are regardless of their social stature.Ahhhhh....yes ! DON'T FORGET THE RICE.

This is a short but sweet folktale set in ancient China. A humble peasant desires to marry the princess, which means that he would one day rule the kingdom. The emperor will not allow this to someone of such humble blood. With his cleverness and hard work, the peasant eventually earns the emperor's admiration, but he still won't give him his daughter's hand. Since the emperor desires to reward him in some way, the peasant suggests starting with a grain of rice, with double the amount each day, for 100 days. The results are quite entertaining and astounding.

This story provides a nice and fun illustration for children of exponential growth, or more simply the power of multiplication. It also has lessons about hard work, the value of cleverness, etc. The story itself is only 65 pages, and that's relatively large font and large margins and many appealing illustrations. It could comfortably be read in less than 20 minutes. I read this aloud to my two oldest children. The almost-8-year-old loved the multiplying and how big the numbers got. My 6-year-old loved the character of Pong Lo and asked if there were any other stories about him! I definitely recommend this book to those with elementary age children.

I read this book and then had my 8 year old daughter read it and give me a report on it. She not only loved the story, she picked up on Pong Lo's plan right away and couldn't wait to get to the end to see what came of it. It's a very good story with more than one great lesson.

Excellent!

This book is such a simple variation on the old grains on a chessboard example of exponential growth. The story is charming, but not exceptional. It is the almost familiar story of a peasant who wishes to marry the princess and uses his brain to achieve his goal.

I'd recommend it to anyone with bright young children or grandchildren to read it to. And you are bound to enjoy it yourself too.

My son read this book as part of a book club. He enjoyed it thouroughly. It gave us an opportunity to talk about a different culture. Some of the text describing the behaviors and actions of the characters were a great place to ask text comprehension questions. I enjoyed reading it along side with my son.