In a Village by the Sea
This circle story with full-page illustrations takes place in a fishing village in Vietnam. A mother and her baby are in the kitchen where a meal is being prepared in anticipation of the fisherman father’s return home. The family’s dog is seen on almost every page and brings attention to a hole in the floor of the kitchen. The dog looks in the hole, and we see a cricket painting a scene that shows a fisherman in a white boat. The fisherman is hoping that soon the crashing waves and thunder of the storm will end so that he can get home to his wife and child. Observant children will see the story within the story and discover visual surprises at every reading.
Pennsylvania Center for the Book Awards
Book Activities & Discussion Ideas
At the end of the story, discuss with the children the ideas illustrated in the story that could be reality and those that are magical. When the storm is over and the fisherman returns home, is his home going to be inside the cricket’s hole or is it the house which contains the cricket’s hole? Children are learning to distinguish what is real and what is imaginary in their world. This story goes back and forth between the two, providing an opportunity to talk about it with an adult.
Educators can use In a Village by the Sea to demonstrate how parents might introduce a before reading, during reading and an after reading discussion with children. Using a globe or world map, show children the location of the story in the country of Vietnam. Before reading, invite children to trace their fingers up the coastline of Vietnam to see how long the country is and how much water is located along that coastline. Tell the children that the country of Vietnam is next to a body of water called the South China Sea. After finding Vietnam on the globe or the map, show the distance and location between there and the place where the children live. During reading, point out the sea in the illustrations near the family’s home. Ask the children if they think the sea looks calm or rough. Look at the sea where the fisherman’s boat is located. What does the sea look like in those pictures? After reading, talk with the children about the story’s location and discuss whether the activities of this family in Vietnam are similar or different from those where they live.