Fly Free

Written by Rosanne Thon and Illustrated by Enjin Kim Neilan. Rosanne was born in California but has lived in Asia for over 15 years.  She is a journals, educator, and children's book author.   For more information about Thon click here. Neilan was born and raised in South Korea.  She has always loved art. She now lives in Massachusetts with her family and dog.  For more information about Enjin click here.

Genre: Fiction
Theme: Multicultural/ Diversity Education
Ages: 5-9

Summary: This is a story about a young girl who wishes to free caged birds in a Buddhist temple in Vietnam however she can only afford to feed them.  She generously gives away her red velvet shoes as a simple act of kindness which finally returns full circle back to the caged birds.
It includes information about the ideas of karma.   


Link for Picture of Fly Free

Pre-Reading Activity:  Show a picture of 2 or 3 children of varying heights, clothing styles, glasses, hair color, and skin color.  Ask class to volunteer things that are similar and different about the children.  Once skin color comes up open the discussion for names for different shades of skin color.

Post-Reading Activity: Have students write a poem about their perceived skin color. Teacher may scaffold the process by using sentence starters on a chart or an outline of the poem with blanks for students to fill in and draw a picture of themselves.

Reflection: This was a very touching a warm story.  It helps shed light on lesser known cultural beliefs in a way that is easy for young ones to comprehend.