Grandfather's Dream

Grandfather dreams of the day that the cranes will come back to their little town in Vietnam. They left when the fields were drained and the vegetation died, but now dikes were built to hold the water once again. The cranes symbolized long life and happy families to Grandfather, but the new

Show More

generation wanted to plant rice on the land. Would the cranes come back home?

Show Less

Summary: In this story, a young boy named Nam lives with his parents and grandfather in a small village in Vietnam. His grandfather often tells stories to the young boy, one of which is of how cranes used to be everywhere in Vietnam. But when the war came, the cranes’ habitats were destroyed. He

Show More

dreams of the day that they return. Nam hopes that this dream comes true. In the village, they’ve just completed building a new habitat for the cranes so that they can come back. But if they don’t return, the area will be turned into rice fields. One day, the young boy’s dogs bring him two baby birds, unharmed. They look strange to the boy, so he asks his grandfather about them. He just smiles. The next day, everyone in the village come out of their homes and look in awe at the sky. Cranes fly towards their new home, ready to reclaim their habitat. Grandfather’s dream has come true!
Personal Reaction: I appreciated that this story deals with a real situation, in that cranes used to populate Vietnam in large numbers, but the war drove them away. There are older people who do dream of the cranes returning. I also liked the representation of the Vietnamese culture in the illustrations, even when the culture was not mentioned in the story. It really made me look at the pictures along with the words. Sometimes, I focused more on the pictures!
Classroom Extensions:
1. First, do a read through of the book. Then, discuss Vietnam and its culture. What is the norm for housing, food, work, etc…? Then read the book again and ask the students to pay special attention and look for the things discussed. Have kids give you a list of what they noticed and right it down on the board. Allow them to ask questions about anything they noticed that wasn’t discussed.
2. Explain what a habitat is, and why the environment determines what animals can live there.Talk about why the cranes came back. What did the villagers do to create a new habitat for the cranes? What did it look like? Then talk about habitats of other animals. Use this as an introduction to a habitat research paper. Allow students to choose any animal they want, but don’t allow two students to have the same animal. Have a day in which they spend some time at the library researching for a one page paper.

Show Less