One (Critical Issues)

One

Otoshi, K. (2008). One. San Rafael, CA: KO Kids Books.

ISBN: 9780972394642

“One” is a book about bullying. Blue and his friends constantly get bullied by Red, until One comes along and makes them all realize that they all count and they all need to stick up for themselves. They all stand up to Red, which makes Red feel very small. They, then ask Red if he wants to count with them, and then they all become friends.

This is a great book for 3-5 year olds as it includes bright colours, and numbers so that they can easily participate in the story and stay engaged. The language is also very simple and easy to read.

The illustrations are wonderful, yet so simple. They are just bright colours of what looks like circles of paint. The colours of the each circle are included in the actual words, where if they say the name Blue or Red, the actual word is the same colour as the name. The circles of coloured paint turn into numbers of the same colour, illustrating that everyone counts and no one should be left out. I was drawn to this book because of its simplicity and how it was able to illustrate wonderfully, a very critical issue in schools. I liked how a little blob of paint can take on a character and become more than just a blob of paint.

To provoke interest in the book I would put a giant red circle on one side of the classroom and a small blue, orange, purple, green, and yellow circle on the other side of the room. I would ask the children why one circle was on one side of the room and why the rest were on the other. I would also ask them why one circle was bigger than all the rest. Then later on the same day or the next day I would put the grey number One right next to the big red circle, with the rest of the coloured circles a little ways behind it and then ask the children what he was doing there.

There are many ways one can read this book.

1. You can use a felt story, which would be really simple to make yourself with coloured felt; you can buy from the dollar store, or find out if 3H Craftworks in Vancouver BC has one readymade.

2. You can read the story and stop on P. 5 and ask the children why Blue did not like being himself when he was around Red. Then you could stop on P. 11 and ask the children what is going to happen next. Then you could stop again on P. 17 and ask the same question, as to what was going to happen next. Then again on either P. 26 or P. 27 or both you can ask the same question again. This gets children involved in the story and helps them come to conclusions on their own and gives them a better understanding of how bullying hurts people’s feelings.

3. You can also use props, where each child gets to be a different colour. You can use different coloured shirts, which you can buy from a thrift store or make yourself by dying white t-shirts, and then painting the correct number associated with the colour on the back of the shirt. These supplies can be bought at Michaels. Or you can just simply use paper plates with the colour on one side and the number associated with it on the other, these supplies can be bought at the dollar store.

Possible extensions:

1. You can let the children free play with the props, and let them explore or expand the story of bullying on their own.

2. You can ask the children if they have ever had their feelings hurt and have a discussion with everyone as to how the situation could have been resolved where no one felt hurt or left out in the end.

3. You can ask each child what their favourite colour was and get them to draw on a paper plate (their favourite colour), then each child can role play or act as their colour, as in their colour is their costume and a character they can take on.

4. You can also have 10 numbers, each a different colour, then get the children to say the colour and number they see, and so as to not get them to see, for example, a blue number one every day, you can change the colours of the numbers so that there are 10 colours and each has a turn to be associated with all 10 numbers. So in the end you should have, for example 10 “one’s”, each a different colour, and so on. You can get the material for this at any dollar store, and it would be best to laminate them if you plan on letting the children play with the numbers.