King For A Day

King For A Day

Picture book
The most wonderful picture books are combinations of the novel
and the familiar. Rukhsana Khan's King For A Day beautifully contains
both elements. Emotions familiar to Everychild build identification
with Malik, a Pakastani participant in a spring kite festival.
Children on rooftops compete to be king of Basant. It's a
series of individual skirmishes in which children manuever their kites
to cut the strings on rivals. (Fallen kites are collected for use the
next year).
You don't have to imagine the spectacle of all the soaring
kites. Christiane Kromer's collages beautifully show both vista and
texture. You have to touch the pages to remind yourself they are not
three dimensional.
Malik is determined to win. He is especially intent on
defeating the bully next door who has hit him and thrown stones at his
sister. With his small, agile kite, Falcon, he takes on the bully's
huge expensive kite which he has nicknamed Goliath.
Now if I were a teacher I Would Acquire King For A Day and save
it for spring. Unlike kids of my day, most of today's children
fortunate enough to be introduced to kite flying use commercially made
toys. A clever teacher will easily be able to incorporate many
aspects of curriculum (language arts, writing, math, science, art,
physical exercise...) into a fun and captivating unit by enabling
students to...
...go fly a kite.
On a personal note, I am engaged in the long overdue reorganization of
my storage shed. This involves a lot of thinning out of stuff I
thought I'd need. When it is done I will be able to store more stuff
from the house and get the house better organized.
Just don't ask me why.
A great big shout goes out to my friend, David's son, also David, who
is walking. What a big boy!
jules hathaway



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