I don't want to be a pea

Bonwill, A. (2011). I don't want to be a pea!  Oxford: Oxford University Press.        ISBN: 978-0-19-278017-1

I don't want to be a pea! is a story about friendship and compromise.  Bella the bird and Hugo the hippopotamus are best friends.  They are going to a costume party.  They need to decide on costumes to wear, to go as a pair.  Hugo states that they will go as the princess and the pea.  He will be the princess and Bella will the pea.  Bella does not like this idea.  She intends to be a mermaid and Hugo will be her rock.  Hugo is offended. Hugo and Bella exchange further suggestions, which the other dismisses one after the other.  The friends are not happy, and are heading towards a crisis.  Hugo's and Bella's bickering leads them to the decision that they will not go to the costume party together, and they both stomp away.  After a bit of sad and solitary reflection Bella and Hugo realize that they miss their best friend.  They decide to make each another happy, and plan a surprise.  Both friends arrive at the party dressed as the pea, so the other could be the princess.  They make up and happily celebrate.  Bella and Hugo end the story saying "we're two peas in a pod...just as it should be".  Friendship has conquered their uncooperative stubbornness.

This is a lovely tale that shows that a good friendship requires compromise.  After bickering, the friends offer a gesture of peace when they realize that their friendship is most important.  The story is told in a sweet and funny way.  There is wit and humor to the dialogue.  I don't want to be a pea references well know fairytales, which the child will recognize. The relationship between Hugo and Bella is incredibly believable.  A child could relate the characters' squabbling to their own stubborn arguments with friends or siblings.  Ultimately, as the story shows, it feels good to make someone else happy.

The lively illustrations add a fantastic dimension to the tale. They are composed of strong black line drawing with large colour blocks and collage.  The illustrations are bold, incredibly expressive and capture the audience's attention.  Another interesting visual detail is the different fonts that are used for each character.

I will make two laminated posters of the characters.  I will place these in the classroom. Later, I will play a game with the children. I will make a stack of cards with a variety of photos of different birds and hippos. Each card will have a question on the back. 

For the bird cards I will ask:

- What is special about a bird, which no other animal has? (Feathers)

- What does a bird make for its home? (A nest)

- What is a bird born out of? (An egg)

- Can all birds fly? (Most of them but not all.  Some birds can swim, such as the            penguin, and some run, like the ostrich.)

- What do most birds like to eat?  (Insects, but some like plants and some like meat.)

-What is the world's biggest bird? (The ostrich. It is taller than your mom and dad.  It is also the fastest runner)

- What is the world's smallest bird? (The hummingbird.  The Bee Hummingbird is not much bigger than an insect.)

For the hippopotamus cards I will ask:

- What does a hippo eat? (Plants.  Its favourite is short grasses.)

- Can a hippo run faster than a person? (Yes.)

- Where do hippos like to be? (In the water, its second favourite place is the mud.)

- Is a hippo big?  (Yes very.  It is as tall as an adult human but weighs more than a car possibly as much as two cars. It is third largest of all land animals, after the elephant and the rhinoceros.)

- Where is a hippo born? (Under water.)

- When does a hippo eat? (All nightlong.  During the long hot day they keep cool in the water.  After sunset they take a long walk and eat a lot of grass - as much grass as a child weighs.)

- What colour is a hippo? (Grey, but they do expel a natural sunscreen that is red in color.)

I will ask the children to pick the cards from the deck at random.  We will answer the questions together as a group.  After we answer the question I will affix it to the appropriate animal (with suction cup hooks). Whichever animal gets to five cards first, determines the next activity. 

If the hippo wins we will sing an action song:

The Hippo Song (by Eric Ode)

Stomping through the jungle is the hippopotamus - boom boom

Stomping through the jungle is the hippopotamus - boom boom

With sandpaper skin from top to bottomous

Oh how I love that hippopotamus

Swimming in the river is the hippopotamus - splish splash, boom boom

Swimming in the river is the hippopotamus - splish splash, boom boom

With sandpaper skin from top to bottomous

Oh how I love that hippopotamus

Chasing all the monkeys is the hippopotamus - ee ee, splish splash, boom boom

...

Eating all the mangos is the hippopotamus - munch munch, ee ee, splish splash, boom boom

...

Sleeping in the jungle is the hippopotamus - snore snore, munch munch, ee ee, splish splash, boom boom. 

...

If the bird wins first I would give children scarves and we would imagine we were birds flying and flapping our wings and dance to Bob Marley's "Three Little Birds".

The next day we would finish the remaining questions and do the other musical activity.  I would then introduce our book - I don't want to be a pea.

Once we have read the story together, I have a few alternate ways to share the story with the children.

A) A magnet action play - I will make or purchase the animals, objects and characters in the tale.  I will need small figures of a bird, a hippo, a princess, two peas, a mermaid, a rock, a king, a jester, Cinderella, a pumpkin, a wolf, Red Riding Hood.  I will also require magnets to glue to the bottom of the figures, a magnet on a stick to move the characters, a box with a slit cut out to place the stick in and a small set of curtains.  I will move the figures one at a time through the little curtains as I tell the tale. 

B) A child involved felt story - I will need white felt, t-shirt transfer paper, a clothesline and little pegs. I will place the pictures of the bird and hippo, as a princess, peas, a mermaid, a rock, a king, a jester, Cinderella, a pumpkin, a wolf, and Red Riding Hood on the line, as well as a showerhead, some party decorations and footprints.  These will all be colour photocopied and transferred on to white felt.  As I tell the story the children will help me to place the picture on the felt board.

C) A block story - I will make wooden blocks (20x35x75mm) and affix small images of the characters on each one.  I will have a pea pod on the back of each block and each block will be sealed with a water-based sealer.  I will stack the blocks in two stacks as I tell the story.  When the story reaches the crises I will have two children volunteer to stamp their fists on the table, acting as angry feet.  The stacks will fall, showing how anger is destructive.  I will finish the story placing the remaining pieces together.

D) A costume story - I will make or buy hats, masks or chest ornaments for all the characters.  I will have the children randomly pick out a block from the previous example.  That will be their character.  As I tell the story the children move to the center of the circle and play the part.  I will need grey felt for the hippo, the rock and wolfs ears, green pea felt, feathers for the birds mask, pink fabric for the princess crown, a tiara, gold foil and cardboard for the Kings crown, several colours of felt for the jester's hat, orange felt for the pumpkin, blue felt for the mermaid's tale and red fabric for the riding hood.

This is not a story that I would chunk.  One could chunk it at the point where the characters are sad and remorseful, but I would just pause there and wonder with the children.  I like the flow of the book and it is also quite short and sweet.  Another place that I would stop to wonder are on the title page, pointing at the photograph (I wonder why the bird is riding on the hippos head?).  Next would be the first page (I wonder why they say all birds have hippos and all hippos have birds?). I would stop to wonder about all the footprints. I would wonder with them why the animals are so mad and if they are going to the party.  At the end, I would wonder why the animals are so happy. 

After we have immersed ourselves with this story, I have a few extensions that I would follow with.

A) I would start with our group's "peas in a pod" activity.  I would make a giant pea pod out of green construction paper.  I then would cut circles to represent peas.  On the pea I would attach a photo of each child and she or he would decorate it. The child and I would write a little bit about him or her and what they like, etc.  Each pea would be put into the giant pod and placed on the wall.  I would laminate it so that the children could handle the pieces as they wish.  I would point out that we may all be a little different but we belong together.

B) I would open up a conversation about symbiosis.  A symbiotic relationship is one that is beneficial to two different species.  I would point out that Bella and Hugo have a relationship that mirrors one that happens in nature.  In real life birds and hippos have a give and take relationship.  Each animal relies on the other. The bird eats the insects that prey on the hippo and the hippo provides the bird with food and protection. 

I would display photos and explain further examples of symbiotic relationships.  - - The honeybee and a flower - Flowers provide the bee with nectar for food and the bee helps make seeds for new flowers by carrying pollen from one flower to another. (We could pretend to be bees and flowers buzzing from one to the next).

- Algae and fungi - Together they make lichen.  Lichen can grow in places where neither algae nor fungi could survive on their own.  (I would bring in real examples and farther I would make a point of pointing out these plants in a nature walk.)

- Sea anemone and the clownfish - The anemone protects the clownfish by hiding it in its poisonous arms.  The clownfish gets rid of the anemones parasites and brings back bits of food. 

- The badger and the coyote - The badger and the coyote make excellent hunters when they work as a team.  The badger is good at digging up their prey and the coyote is very fast and can catch it when tries to run away.

- The olive baboon and the elephant - The baboon uses the water holes that the elephant digs up and the elephant listens to the warnings from the treetop baboons, 

C) We would plant peas.  I would need English pea seeds, pots, soil, and fertilizer.  We would put soil in the pots and sprinkle the soil with the peas, pressing them into the soil.  We then cover the peas with more soil and water. We would decorate the pots with images of Bella and Hugo.  We would tend to the plants and watch them grow, using sticks as trellises as required.

D) Another extension from "I don't want to be a pea" is to read the stories that the book refers to.

The Princess and the Pea.  Although, I would share a modern interpretation of the tale - The princess and the packet of frozen peas. (By Wilson, T.: Scholastic). This is story of a fun-loving tomboy princess not a whiny, fragile one.

I would read Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella.  I would share an oral story of a mermaid and one for the king and his jester, while the children draw the stories. 

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