Just Plain Fancy: An Amish Tale


   Just Plain Fancy by Patricia Polacco is a story about a young Amish girl as she learns a new part about her religion/ culture. It is Naomi's job to care for the family's chickens and one day she comes across a rather fancy egg in the yard. Hoping it will hatch, Naomi places the egg under Henny. Once the egg hatches, Naomi and Ruth find a fancy baby bird which they name Fancy. Later that night, the two sisters here a story about a woman in their community who was too Fancy so she was shunned from the church and kicked out of the Amish community; Ruth and Naomi begin to fear that Fancy will be shunned so they lock him in the chicken coop so the elders do not see him. However, Fancy escapes and before Naomi can catch him, her secret is out. While she pleads that the animal not be shunned for being too fancy, an elder explains to her that Fancy is a peacock, one of God's most beautiful creation and that he would not be shunned.
   This children's book opens the mind of students to different cultures that thrive right here in America. Cultures that are much different than ours but still function harmoniously with our culture. The language in this book is very simplistic which allows young readers to read it easily while still effectively communicates a key belief of this Amish culture.  Also, Polacco makes a great use of primary colors and outline style to add just enough emphasis to the illustrations that they support the story rather than distract from it.
  I really enjoyed this book because it shows the coming of age in a new culture as well as the different aspects of a different culture that co-exists with ours. This story also does a great job of portraying childhood innocence in a sense when Naomi tries to defend the peacock and take the blame for a natural occurrence.

Motivational Activities:
  • Using the book and your chrome book, make a Venn Diagram of the similarities and differences between the American culture and the Amish culture. 
    • Younger grades: Venn Diagram of similarities and differences between chickens and peacocks.
  • Kindergarten:Using tissue paper, decorate a card stock peacock and write one sentence about the peacock.  
Discussion Questions:
  • How are the Amish similar or different from the Americans? 
  • After doing research for the project, do you think that you could live in an Amish community? Why or why not?
References:
 Polacco, P. (2015). Just plain fancy. Little Rooster Books.

Comments

  1. UnknownAugust 10, 2017 at 7:36 AM

    I've never read this book before but I loved the review on this book you did a really good job.
    The motivational activity that I would suggest is Books of the round table where the teacher picks a group of students five to be exact to the book of the teacher's choose and after reading the assigned chapter's they get to have lunch with the teacher and discuss their likes and dislikes about the book. I think that this activity builds a beginning bond and allows them to express different point of views.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lemonade War: Realistic Fiction

Image
  The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies is a cute realistic fiction story that revolves around Jessie and Evan Treski's end of summer activity--a lemonade stand. Recently, Evan has discovered that not only will Jessie jump a grade and be in 4th grade but she is in his class! This sparks a feud between the duo and involves Evan making a lemonade stand without Jessie--he favorite activity. And this sparks the war, winner takes all and loser gets none.    This book is great for students of all ages whether being read to or reading the story themselves. Davies does a great job at making it close to impossible for the reader to find out who will win the war before the end of the book. Students also will identify with this book because all siblings have their fights and the students will feel a connection as either the older sibling or younger to Jessie and Evan.   This book though it does not have many illustrations, only very few sketches, the illustrations add meani...
Read more

A Million Fish...More or Less: A Creole Folktale

Image
A Million Fish...More or Less by Patricia C. McKissack is about a young African American boy who is fishing along the Bayou Clapateaux. The young boy, Hugh, hears stories about how strange the bayou can be from Papa Daddy and Elder Abbajon. After Papa Daddy Elder Abbajon leave, Hugh catches a miilion fish, however the gators come along and he gives away half of his fish. Then again, as he is walking home he gets stopped by raccoons who cut his fish in half again. Once back in his neighborhood, Hugh gets duped again by a cat who only leaves him with three fish of the million he started out with.   It is always said that the bayou is a strange place and throughout this story Hugh finds out just how strange it can be. This book also opens the door for students to begin exploring the Creole culture which believes in strange happenings, especially in the bayou.    The language that McKissack uses in this book is relatively easy for all readers to read fluently while being ...
Read more

Cinderella Penguin: A Fractured Fairytale

Image
Cinderella Penguin by Janet Perlman is twisted version of the Disney Cinderella. While it follows the same story line as the normal Cinderella, a young girl who must be a maid for her step mother and step sisters that has a fairy godmother. Once the fairy godmother has made Cinderella into a beautiful ball ready girl she meets a prince that falls in love with her, searches for her by the shoe she left, and marries her. However, in Cinderella Penguin , the story is about a penguin rather than a girl.  Perlman does a great job illustrating and writing this book. While the language does have extremely simple language, it is simple enough that young readers have little to no difficulty reading this story. The use of slightly more advanced language, allows the students to broaden their language barriers. While the illustrations are very colorful and straight forward, they add a great visuals to the story which allows the students to see the story progress as they read. Other books w...
Read more