Luba and the Wren
Written and illustrated by Patricia Polacco
Puffin Books, 1999
This Russian retelling of The Fisherman and His Wife begins with a simple act of kindness when the young girl Luba rescues a wren from a net. To her surprise, the wren speaks and offers her any wish she desires. Because this happy and contented child cannot think of anything she wants, the wren says to come back when she does. When she tells her parents what happened, they think of how easy they can rise from their poor station and tell her to wish for a larger house and fertile fields. But after the wren grants this wish, they want more and eventually rise to rulers through their many wishes to the wren. This story shows how wanting and getting more does not necessarily lead to a happy and contented life, but that the greatest riches are sometimes those that we don't ask for.
The audience for this picture book would be primary or early elementary. It has an obvious moral at the end as well as throughout: each time the wish gets bigger the storm clouds get fiercer. Though written in English, the use of Russian terms for different types of houses and rulers could be interesting vocabulary lessons.
Wouldn't this be a great story to have students do a recontextualization with--where they rewrite the story in a different format? I didn't read the choice article, but Abbey did and she talked about recontextualization as a way of writing a similar piece in a different format.
ReplyDeleteStudents could take the story and rewrite it as a letter from Luba to her parents, begging them to stop asking for wishes. She could recount some of the events, and then beg them to stop before things go too far.
Or the story could be recontextualized by rewriting it as an American story. Students could take it and put themselves and their parents in the story--and could transfer it to what things an American might want (more video games, more toys, a bigger house--maybe even president). Or perhaps not American--but Japanese, Chinese, or Korean? Or Colonial American?
Or perhaps students could rewrite it as an interview, a news paper article, or through a different point of view (such as the Wren).
Just thinking of ways to extend the story to classroom use.