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I really enjoyed this book for two reasons. The first because it was so diverse and looked into a different part of the world that not everyone sees every day. The second reason is because it talked about war which sometimes does not do well in children’s books, however, this book did an incredible job of incorporating.
The first thing that I really liked about this book was the illustrations. Since this book was more complex, the illustrator made sure to draw some of the more complex parts. For example, in the text it talks about a boy who is riding a water buffalo. However, most children do not know what water buffalo are, so the illustrator made sure to include a picture of the little boy riding one.
The second thing that I enjoyed about this book was the point of view. I really liked that it was told from the little boy because you can really feel his emotions. For example, in the text the little boy was told that the cranes might not come back, and his reactions was sad and the author described his sadness but creating a worried uneasy tone in the novel.
I believe the big idea of this book was war. I think that we hear about war and what war start to finish but never the after part of the war. This was taken place after the war which gave a different insight on how war really affects the world after it is over, which is really powerful. ( )

Summary: In this story, a young boy named Nam lives with his parents and grandfather in a small village in Vietnam. His grandfather often tells stories to the young boy, one of which is of how cranes used to be everywhere in Vietnam. But when the war came, the cranes’ habitats were destroyed. He dreams of the day that they return. Nam hopes that this dream comes true. In the village, they’ve just completed building a new habitat for the cranes so that they can come back. But if they don’t return, the area will be turned into rice fields. One day, the young boy’s dogs bring him two baby birds, unharmed. They look strange to the boy, so he asks his grandfather about them. He just smiles. The next day, everyone in the village come out of their homes and look in awe at the sky. Cranes fly towards their new home, ready to reclaim their habitat. Grandfather’s dream has come true!
Personal Reaction: I appreciated that this story deals with a real situation, in that cranes used to populate Vietnam in large numbers, but the war drove them away. There are older people who do dream of the cranes returning. I also liked the representation of the Vietnamese culture in the illustrations, even when the culture was not mentioned in the story. It really made me look at the pictures along with the words. Sometimes, I focused more on the pictures!
Classroom Extensions:
1. First, do a read through of the book. Then, discuss Vietnam and its culture. What is the norm for housing, food, work, etc…? Then read the book again and ask the students to pay special attention and look for the things discussed. Have kids give you a list of what they noticed and right it down on the board. Allow them to ask questions about anything they noticed that wasn’t discussed.
2. Explain what a habitat is, and why the environment determines what animals can live there.Talk about why the cranes came back. What did the villagers do to create a new habitat for the cranes? What did it look like? Then talk about habitats of other animals. Use this as an introduction to a habitat research paper. Allow students to choose any animal they want, but don’t allow two students to have the same animal. Have a day in which they spend some time at the library researching for a one page paper.

Grandfather dreams of the day that the cranes will come back to their little town in Vietnam. They left when the fields were drained and the vegetation died, but now dikes were built to hold the water once again. The cranes symbolized long life and happy families to Grandfather, but the new generation wanted to plant rice on the land. Would the cranes come back home? ( )

Summary: After the end of the war in Vietnam, a young boy's grandfather dreams of restoring the wetlands of the Mekong delta, hoping that the cranes will return. It talks about the restoring of the fields and how his family works to reach that goal of the cranes return.
Genre: Culture ( )