Do you know what promise means? Of course you do and the children in Cacra and Chimbel know it too! They shared with me some of the promises that they had made and those that they had kept too!
It was good to know how the children felt about the word ‘promise’. Their understanding was the perfect note to begin the Read Aloud of the book ‘The Promise’ by Nicola Davies and illustrated by Laura Carlin. It is a lovely story that shows how ‘the promise’ brought a change in the main character’s life that resulted in a change in her surroundings.
For me this book was something that I really liked because of the green vision. A vision, that changed the sad and dry city into a green, live space. I was quite happy that my interest in gardening and plants was in the book. Interestingly, however, the book surprised me after my first Read Aloud.
I was struck during the read-aloud as my small desire of sharing how growing trees can change the world made me realize that even a small change within someone can contribute to a change outside oneself. As the story is written in the first person I realized how my thinking can also be something that can lead to a better world that I live in. As I read – aloud, the story became my story.
As far as children were concerned, the book brought out the change that the children had not experienced but their imagination allows them to reach into the book. According to them, a sad city does not get rain, it is full of cruelty and shows less mercy. While their thoughts about a happy city were that every person is happy, enjoys nature and the environment is a part of their joy. These thoughts of the children were shared with each other by acting it out before the Read Aloud. It was done in two groups where one group portrayed a sad city and the other a happy city. It startled all of us to see that the children’s imagination was not far from the powerful illustrations of Laura Carlin in this story.
The story brought many emotions and meanings to the children and me. They were very responsive with the seriousness and then the joy that they felt through the story. The story gave them the imaginative seed of change that they colored out onto the chart papers that they worked on during the post story.
About the Book- The Promise-A young thief snatches an old lady’s bag- and is compelled to make a promise… which is the beginning of a journey that will change everything, forever.
About the Author- Nicola Davies- (born 3 May 1958) is an English zoologist and writer. She was one of the original presenters of the BBC children’s wildlife programme The Really Wild Show.
About the Writer – Stephie Madurai- reads stories and herself while working at Bookworm.