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You have accessed the blog site for Choosing and Using Books for Children. Throughout the term we'll use our blog to record the books we read and the ideas we have for using them when we're teachers. By the end of March, our class will have read at least 280 books. Happy reading!

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Book Title:

Author(s):

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist:

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Copyright Date:

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Brief Annotation:

Your Rating (1-5) and why:

Readers who will like this book:

Teaching Strategy from Tompkins or Yopp & Yopp (you'll link a strategy to at least 10 of your 40 books) :

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud:

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Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sumorella


Book Title: Sumorella

Author(s): Sandi Takayama

Illustrator/Photographer/Artist: Esther Szegedy

Publisher: The Bess Press, Inc.

Copyright Date: 1997

Genre: Folktale

Brief Annotation: Mango Boy is the youngest of three brothers and the only one who is not a sumo wrestler in-training. When his older brothers go off to the big sumo match Mango Boy must stay to work at the mango stand. Soon after the matches begin, the local ‘manapua’ man comes down the lane and offers to turn the boy into a sumo wrestling champion. Mango Boy (now known as Sumorella) makes it just in time for the match and goes on to win the tournament. Just as the tournament bell rings his ‘mawashi’ (loin cloth) falls off and he has to run home. The Japanese grand stablemaster comes looking for the local boy who can fit the mysterious champion’s mawashi and whisks Mango Boy away to become a success story in the Japanese sumo world.

Your Rating (1-5) and why: (4) I liked this clever take on Cinderella because of the way it broke the traditional gender boundaries of this story. It would be great to read to kids because there are lots of familiar elements that they will associate with Cinderella, like how the manapua man first asks for a pumpkin and mice, only to accidentally turn Mango Boy into a princess with a ball gown and glass slippers. When he realizes his mistake the manapua man has him bring several pots of rice and bananas so that he can eat and turn into a big sumo wrestler. 

Readers who will like this book: Readers who will like this book are those that are already familiar with the traditional version of Cinderella. It would be fun to pick out elements that are the same and different in both stories. I think students who like silly books would also enjoy it because the dialogue in the story is written out with Hawai’ian accents. For example, Mango Boy says to the manapua man, “No tell nobody, but I like be in da sumo stuff today.”

Question to ask about this book before a read aloud: What do we know about the story Cinderella? Have you ever seen a Cinderella story with a boy in it? He looks like a sumo wrestler! What is a sumo wrestler? Can you show me what they do?!
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1 comment:

  1. Suzy Kaback & FamilyFebruary 27, 2012 at 10:37 AM

    I'm really glad to know about this book. I'm slowly but surely trying to build a collection of Cinderella-themed books from across cultures and from different perspectives. The gender switch here will be a great addition to my collection. Another "boy" Cinderella story is Cinderlad (Irish). And one of my favorite versions of Jack and the Beanstalk is called Kate and the Beanstalk (by the author of the Magic Treehouse books--Mary Pope Osborne). Just an FYI. Thanks for your detailed summary of Sumorella.

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