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This was adorable! It was about a boy who wanted to build a boat and found out the hardships of building one and relying on family and neighbors to help him build the boat. Wonderful illustrations.

The Old Man and the Sea is a quiet yet powerful story about dignity, endurance, and the human spirit. Ernest Hemingway tells the tale of Santiago, an aging Cuban fisherman who battles the sea, a giant marlin, and his own failing strength with remarkable simplicity and depth.

The Old Man and the Sea is a powerful meditation on perseverance, pride, and dignity in struggle. Through Santiago‘s lonely battle with nature, Hemingway explores endurance, aging, heroism, and faith with striking simplicity. The balance between defeat and inner victory is moving, and the respect shown toward nature is profound. Though sparse and slow for some readers, its themes linger long after the final page. 4 ⭐️

Two men went out fishing in a small boat off the coast of Mexico and were caught in a storm. Their boat was disabled and ended up drifting across the Pacific all the way to the Marshal Islands. If, like me, you found the on the sea part of A Marriage at Sea a little thin, this is the book for you. Salvador is an extraordinary man with a great attitude, and I loved this book.

“Dad will not and smile and eat with his eyes half closed. “Good fish,“ he will say to me.“

“Dad will nod and smile and eat with his eyes half-closed. “Good fish“, he will say to me. “

“A Different Pond“, illustrated by Thi Bui and published in 2017 is a picture book that uses color masterfully to evoke mood and deepen the emotional tone of the story. The grays in the early morning setting, creating a calm atmosphere that matches the quiet bond between father and son. Warm hues appear sparingly, highlighting moments of comfort and human connection. This cool and warm tones shows hardships family faces while love shines.

I would use this story to explain different cultures and how different people have different views and experiences in the world. This book explores a boy and his father fishing to provide food for their family. An activity I would use with this book is having students write or draw about a family experience that is meaningful to them. You can then put all students drawings or writings on a poster for the whole class to see.

“A Different Pond“ illustrated by Thi Bui could be used in my classroom as a lesson to teach how illustrations show emotion and mood. Students explore how color choices reflect feelings, then create their own drawings using colors to express a memory or special moment from their lives. They will then write a few sentences on what the memory and why the colors were chosen and why. This can be shared to the class as a group.

This picture book uses color to emphasize the main character on the different pages. All of the scenes created on pages are dark and utilize navy blue. But where the boy is seen he is emphasized on every page with bright red clothing. The scenes are also dark when the boy and his dad are working to catch dinner for the family. But as soon as they arrive home the colors are vibrant and yellow showing emphasis on the comfort that comes with home.