Luba and the Wren by Patricia Polacco

Luba and the Wren
By Patricia Polacco
Picture book 2

This is a folk tale from Ukraine. A young girl saves a Wren in the forest, not knowing it is an enchanted Wren. He tells her because she was so kind, he will grant her any wish she chooses. When she went home to tell her parents they begged her to go and ask for a bigger house and more fertile land. Her parents kept asking for more and more! She was getting disappointed with her parents, but she wanted to make them happy, so she kept asking the Wren for all the things her parents wanted. When they finally asked for too much than she could handle, she still went to the Wren. Finally when she returned home, it went back to the way it was in the beginning. She was so happy to see her mother and father happy as well. Finally, things went back to normal!

This had a great moral and would be great for a kindergarten or 1st grade lesson, on being content with what you have. The illustrations in the book, beautifully represent the Ukraine country. The colors on the houses and the details showing you the economic upgrade her parents ask for are very realistic. When I read this book there was a page, I was confused about when reading. It felt like there was a page missing. I could not follow the story line. When I did research on the story, all of them seemed to have that "gap." I think it could be used for  the children to think about what they would have done in that situation and make them understand the moral of the story.