Project Mulberry Book Review
Posted by Mrs. Matzat on July 5, 2007
Project Mulberry by Linda Sue Park
R.L. 4.3
When Julia Song and her friend Patrick decide to enter an animal husbandry project in the state fair, Julia is excited. Doing an animal project is a challenge when you live in a townhouse, so when Julia’s mother suggests they raise silkworms like she did when she was a young girl in Korea, Patrick thinks they have found the perfect solution. Julia, who hates anything having to do with her heritage, doesn’t think the idea is go great, but doesn’t want to disappoint her best friend. So, Project Mulberry begins. The story presents many problems for the characters: finding a mulberry tree (silkworms only eat mulberry leaves), pesky little brothers, accepting your heritage, and learning that you have to kill the silkworms to make the silk. This 2007-2008 Mark Twain Award nominee is a must read!
Cindy’s Two-Cents Worth:
I absolutely LOVED this story. After each chapter, the author presents two pages of a “conversation” that she shares with the main character of the story, Julia. I think these bonus pages really give insight into how authors develop their characters and story plots, and it is written with humor, so I think our students will enjoy it as well. This is definitely a story you could read out loud with both our 3rd and 4th grade students. The story has many sub-themes that could be explored. For example, there are many race issues that could be discussed. Julia’s family is Korean, and Julia sometimes gets teased at school because of her race. When the kids find the only mulberry tree in town, it is owned by a black man. Julia suspects that her mother is racists against black people. The story also delves into sustainable farming, the process of raising silkworms and harvesting the silk, sibling relationships and family dynamics, the U.S. state quarters and more. It really is a wonderful story, and I encourage you to read it for your own enjoyment.
Online Resources:
Linda Sue Park’s Website
http://www.lspark.com
Interview with the author from Teachingbooks.net
http://www.teachingbooks.net/content/Park_qu.pdf
Diary of Raising Silkworms
http://www.lspark.com/books/mulberry/mulberryread.html
This site is a diary of the author’s father who raised silkworms to help her with her research.
How to Raise Silkworms – A Full Tutorial
http://www.aurorasilk.com/raisesilk/index.shtml
Silkworms – Information for Teachers
http://www.susankayton.com/silk.htm
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
http://www.sarep.ucdavis.edu/concept.htm
Sustainable Agriculture (USDA)
http://www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/agnic/susag.shtml
Sustainable Agriculture for Kids
http://agebb.missouri.edu/sustain/sustainkids.htm
Life in Korea: Kimchi – Korea’s Food
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/culture/kimchi/kimchi.cfm
Korean Embroidery
http://www.lifeinkorea.com/culture/embro/embro.cfm
Mulberry Trees
http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/forestry/trees/mulberry.htm
50 State Quarters Program
http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/index.cfm?flash=yes&action=50_state_quarters_program
July 6th, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Cool new blog! Is that your SL avatar on the side, or a totally new library lady type avatar just for this blog? Would it be OK to send my students here too? Some of them may want to get a jump on the Mark Twain books for next year….
July 7th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Glad you like the blog. No, the avatar is not from SL. It’s my library lady logo. This blog is not meant for the kids, so please don’t point them this direction. It is a teacher resource and will have links to online sites and tools that are meant for teachers only. My kid blog will be up and going when school starts.
August 28th, 2007 at 11:00 am
Thanks so much for posting the links to go with this book. I started reading it to my kids the other day (they really like it so far) and I used the state quarters link today when we got to the part where the characters were talking about collecting state quarters. Since kids love collecting things (and lots of them already DO collect state quarters), they were really excited about seeing the site and what different state quarters look like. In fact they were so “in to it” that I posted the state quarters site link on my website for them as well. We all thought the charter tree story (mentioned in the book) was really interesting!