Saturday, February 26, 2011

The Night of the Fireflies by: Karen B. Winnick (Multicultural)

Miko and her brother Toshio were excited about the releasing of the fireflies in their hometown in Japan.  In Japan, there is one night every summer that a large amount of fireflies are released for all of the children.  Miko was especially excited to gather around and see the beautiful light of these fireflies.  Her brother, Toshio, set up a lantern on one of the tree branches for them to place all of the fireflies that they caught that night.  Miko was only able to catch one firefly, and carefully placed it in the lantern.  When Toshio was off trying to catch a few more, Miko took the lantern off of the branch so she could take the fireflies home with her.  As she was trying to find Toshio in the woods, she tripped and dropped the lantern.  She was very sad because a few of the fireflies flew out, but she quickly put the cover back on.  Her and Toshio walked back home and decided to let the fireflies go so that they could be free.  Miko was sad to let them all go, but looked forward to the night of the fireflies next summer.

I would use this in the classroom to introduce the Japanese culture.  The Night of the Fireflies is a big event in the Japanese culture.  Fireflies were a very common thing to see in Japan for many years, but recently they have been disappearing, so they are raised and saved to realease one night during the summer each year for the kids.  This is one tradition that you can teach students about their culture.  I could also use this book to teach the class about fireflies as well.     

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