I was going through some of my books on Laos yesterday and came across one of my favorite children’s books, Rice is Life by Rita Golden Gelman. Although this book is set in Indonesia, on the island of Bali, the reality of the life cycle of rice that it portrays is universal to all Asian countries. And what Gelman captures so eloquently is the rhythm of the rice growing season from a multitude of perspectives. As a school librarian who has worked at all grade levels, I know the value of using “picture books” with all students. Often times a “picture book” is the perfect anticipatory set (ala Madeline Hunter’s lesson plan) to awaken students’ interest and curiosity. Rice is Life is such a picture book. What I’ve done is to scan in all the pages and put them into a Keynote (Apple’s presentation program) presentation. In the younger grades the kids don’t mind gathering round you in a circle and it’s powerful to share a book like Rice is Life in this way. But for older students, if you have access to an LCD projector and can connect your computer and read the book while the students look at the projected pages, it will hold their attention.
I love to read this book out loud and I feel like I’m right there in the “sawah, or wet rice field.” Unfortunately this book is out of print, but I’m sure it’s available in libraries, and I encourage anyone interested in the role of rice in Asia, to check out this book.
And here are a few selections from some of the pages in the book...
“In the wet and fertile sawah,
Where the mud is warm and deep,
Small and slippery eels live.
They swim.
They eat.
They sleep.
The egrets come to get them,
Picking,
Poking for their prey,
While the slippery little eels
Try to quickly
Slip away
Through the sawah,
Where the mud is warm and deep.
...”As the sun sets in the sawah,
And the sky is purple-red,
A child and his mother watch
While bats fly overhead.
Bats are looking for mosquitoes.
They are eating as they fly.
Flapping,
Darting,
Swooping,
Moving pictures in the sky,
Above the sawah,
When the sky
Is purple-red.
...In the darkness of the sawah
With a yellow moon above
Comes a serenade of frogs
Singing out their songs of love.
Calling to each other.
Croaking,
Croaking all night long.
While a gentle sawah breeze
Filters softly through their song,
In the sawah
With a yellow moon above.
...In the quiet of the sawah
Near the frangipani tree,
Some very special offerings
Are made to Dewi Sri.
“Thank you,” says the farmer.
“Thank you,” says his wife.
Then they lift their hands in prayer,
For they know that rice is life.”
If you’ve ever experienced rice growing in Asia, this has to bring back powerful memories. To read the complete text you’ll have to check out your local library system or buy a used copy on the Internet.
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