Wednesday, December 3, 2008

One Hen

Read: 12/3/2008

One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway, illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes

A boy in Ghana struggles with his mother to earn enough money to survive. Then they get a micro-loan and he buys a brown hen. With the money he saves from selling eggs, he buys another hen and another and after a year has enough money to pay the fees to go to school. Yes, it is a picture book about micro-finance - for children. The story is quite long for a picture book - probably twice as long as needed for the intended audience.

The illustrations by Eugenie Fernandes are colorful and dense with additional meaning - a sun contains an image of an african mask, a tree is covered in Kojo's dreams for the future, a moon has an image of Kojo applying for a loan. And I like the way the chickens look...

The level for reading would be third grade and since the concept is rather sophisticated, I'd say the interest level is also about that high as well. A teacher could make very good use of this book, but I wouldn't recommend it for a casual read.

1 comment:

candospirit said...

I am glad you enjoyed the One Hen book. Kids also really like the website, www.onehen.org. They can play games which trigger real loans to the poor in Africa. Thanks for your support to help others hatch their dreams - "K. Schultz, of the www.onehen.org team