Triptych: Making a Difference

Living in the world today, there are many problems and issues that people face in their normal, everyday lives. If we could make a difference by doing little things, why don’t we? Through my triptych, I wanted to show children and young adult readers that by doing one thing can make a huge difference in other’s lives. My three stories explored three different parts of the world and how someone made a difference to better the lives of others. I also wanted to focus on three different reading levels, so I could find books that not only elementary children could read but also middle school and even high school. My three stories that I chose are One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference written by Katie Smith Milway and illustrated by Eugenie Fernandes; Three Cups of Tea (Young Reader’s Edition) written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin and Monique and the Mango Rains written by Kris Holloway. While Three Cups of Tea and Monique and the Mango Rains are personal narratives, One Hen is based on a true story of a boy from Ghana. These books will let children and young adults see that as they grow older, they are able to make a bigger impact on the world by doing greater things while making friendships along the way. I found that as the reading level goes up, the greater the task at hand is, but the kids can relate to it more at that age level.
One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference by Katie Smith Milway
One Hen is the story of a little boy, Kojo who lives in Ghana with his mother since his father has passed away. One day, Kojo gets an idea when he borrows a loan. He decides that with that loan, he will purchase a hen. The hen lays eggs for his mother and him to eat, but when it lays extra eggs, Kojo decides to sell them at the market to make a profit. With that money, he purchases more hens and he soon has enough money to pay for school. As the story continues, Kojo grows and he goes to college with the money he earned. After college, he borrows another loan and builds a farm with it which he is able to hire workers and pay taxes that will improve his community. As his farm continues to thrive, Kojo is able to loan others money so they can start their own business so they are not living in poverty anymore. In the end, the town grows and thrives all because Kojo borrowed that one loan and bought the hen.
Not only did I find the story very interesting and promising, but the pictures in it are very remarkable. Through the vibrant colors that the illustrator, Eugenie Fernandes uses, it shows the everyday life in Ghana. The drawings are soft and easy on the eyes to look at and discover a new world, which would be fun and helpful for children to learn about. Throughout the book, there are words italicized with a glossary in the back so children can flip and learn what each of the words means. Words like, Ashanti which is one of Ghana’s major groups of people, or even just easy words like scholarship. There is also a page entitled “What can you do to help?” which gives names of different movements that you can be a part of. This might be an interesting and fun activity to do with children in a classroom setting to help start them young to show how they can make a difference in the world.
This book is recommended for grades 1-5.

Three Cups of Tea (Young Reader’s Edition) by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Three Cups of Tea is Greg Mortenson’s story which tells about how in 1993, he began to climb K2 in order to bring his sister’s necklace to the top in her memory. When one of his group members got sick, they all turned around and Greg got lost and ended up in a poor village in Pakistan where the people took him in. In order to repay the village people, Greg made a promise to return back to the village and build a school for the children. The story tells of his struggles of raising money for the schools, but in the end he eventually built more than sixty schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan over the next decade.
Many of you may have heard of this book before. What I found interesting about Three Cups of Tea is that there are different versions for every age level: a children’s version, young readers and also an adult version. Therefore any age level could really relate to this story. Just like in the story of One Hen, there is a glossary in the back for the children to relate to and throughout the book there are pictures of Greg’s travels to help picture what exactly he is referring to.
I really enjoyed this story because it started out with Greg just doing little things to help people. For example, he gave his parka to a friend just to keep him warm and goes on to greater things like the building of the schools. One of my favorite parts in the book is when Greg is first trying to come up with ways to raise money for the schools. He was asked to come to a school in Wisconsin and speak to the students about his efforts. I found this part remarkable: ““It was hard to explain to adults why I wanted to help students in Pakistan… But the kids got it right away. When they saw the pictures, they couldn’t believe that there was a place where children sat outside in cold weather and tried to hold classes without teachers. They decided to do something about it (28).”” This is exactly what the students and children in our schools need to do today. The students at the Westside Elementary School in Wisconsin started a program called “Pennies for Pakistan” to help raise money. In the back of the book it explains what exactly the program is and how it has evolved into “Pennies for Peace.”
This version of the story is recommended for grades 4-8.

My final book in the triptych is entitled Monique and the Mango Rains by Kris Holloway. This story is about Kris Holloway’s journeys in the Peace Corps when she traveled to Mali and stayed two years with a midwife, Monique. Monique and Kris become best friends with a special bond that no one can break. Monique is a very strong woman who helps so many people in her line of work. Kris helps them build new birthing houses and experiences things that she would have never have gotten the chance to if it weren’t for Monique. This story is very moving and remarkable. I read this story after my senior year of high school and was so moved and touched by it. I was lucky enough to hear Kris Holloway speak at my college and it was very moving. I felt that this story between these two friends really shows what helping others out can not only do for the better of everyone else but also for you. Kris got a best friend out of this whole, amazing experience. Kris was in the Peace Corps and kids may think that is the only thing this story is pushing for, but through my eyes this story offers so much more. Obviously I am not assuming every student is going to join the Peace Corps, but I thought it was a way to offer a firsthand experience into what helping others can do for you.
This story may be graphic in some parts so I thought it would be recommended for an older, more mature age group. So I would say very late high school and even early college. It is a wonderful story with pictures from Kris’s trip and travels to show you her experience!