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CM . . .
. Volume X Number 8. . . . December 12, 2003
excerpt:
Josie is a daydreamer, but she becomes very interested when her class starts a new project. Each student learns to knit a square for a class blanket. When the squares are sewn together, the blanket will be mailed to someone in need who lives in a war-torn country. When the knitting is done, Josie volunteers to have her mom sew the squares together. Josie takes the squares home, and her mother helps her carefully finish the blanket that very night. When Josie finally goes to bed, her mother lets her sleep with the blanket just for that one night. Josie drifts off to sleep and dreams that, when she awakens, she is wrapped in the blanket in a very cold dark room. Josie is not alone; she finds a girl, Amina, her own age huddled in the corner of this unfamiliar room. Josie can hear the sounds of war outside the window. Amina explains that her mother went out to get wood for a fire before the shelling started, and, when it stops, she will be back. Josie shares the blanket with her new friend as they huddle together to keep warm. A shell explodes nearby starting a fire, and rescuers try to save the girls. As smoke begins to burn Josie's throat and eyes, her mother yanks open the bedroom curtains, and she is jolted awake. Josie's dream seems so real that she thinks that the blanket still smells like smoke, danger and war. That morning, Josie delivers the finished blanket to school, and her teacher packs it up and sends it away. When the class receives a letter and photo about their blanket, Josie is very excited. Suddenly Josie recognizes one of girls in the picture - it is Amina. Maybe Josie's adventure wasn't a dream after all.
Amina's Blanket is a recommended purchase for public and school libraries. This title would make a nice choice for readers making the transition to chapter books. Libraries never seem to have enough books for this level of reading. Recommended. As the result of another exciting Northern move, Catherine Hoyt is now living and working in Pond Inlet, Nunavut. She is a volunteer at one of the most northern public libraries in Canada.
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Amina's Blanket is part of the "Yellow Bananas" series. This series is the next step up from the "Blue Bananas" series. "Yellow Banana" books each indicate their guided reading level, and teacher guides are sold separately. This series has high interest, lower level reading stories. Dunmore uses short chapters and an exciting storyline to hold the interest of the reader. Readers will have to decide for themselves if what Josie experienced was just a dream or not. There are full colour illustrations on each of the two-page spreads. Dainton uses colour and emotion to bring the story alive for the readers. Given today's current political scene, I feel that this book may be a good choice to start off a discussion about current events overseas.