Five Chinese brothers (who look exactly alike) manage to fool the executioner by using the extraordinary abilities of each.  The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop (1938) has a tall tale quality blended with wonderful pattern.  And without being didactic, it has volumes to say about guilt and responsibility. 

To counteract the potentially stereotypical illustrations by Kurt Wiese, I use the first illustration of the brothers to point out that this is a story set a long time ago.  I explain that, just as we ladies in America no longer wear long dresses and bonnets, Chinese men no longer wear robes and pigtails.  (My intention is not to discuss stereotypes with the students, just to avoid them!) 

Students easily accept the fantastic abilities of the five brothers.  With second and third graders I compared them to The Fantastic Four.  There is some vocabulary that should be discussed in context while reading this book aloud:

• indefinitely
• promptly
• smother
• innocent

With the younger students I supply the definitions; with the older students I use questioning to help them discover a definition.  A good technique is to use the word in another sentence, such as, “babies shouldn’t sleep with a pillow because it could cover their face and mouth and, unable to turn over alone, they would smother.”

When we finish the book I ask the students whether the first Chinese brother truly was guilty of the little boy’s death.  “Was it his fault the little boy drowned?” I ask them.  Not all students automatically view the boy’s death as his own fault, so we discuss it. 

• Was the boy clearly told what to do? (Yes, not once but twice!)
• Did the boy understand?  (Twice he said, ‘yes, yes’)
• How many times was the boy told to come back?  (Three – which he deliberately ignored and then flaunted.)
• How hard did the Chinese brother try to hold back the sea? 
• Was there anything else the Chinese brother could have done?

This book allows great discussion about blaming others rather than taking responsibility for our own choices. (This is a growing problem throughout our society, I believe.)  It is rare that I follow a book with such a serious discussion, but with increasing emphasis on social and emotional learning and making wise choices this makes a perfect opportunity.  

However, I’m certain this book was not one of my childhood favorites because of lessons in accountibility.  The appeal is in the clever way the brothers use their abilities, working together to set the innocent first brother free.    Justice is served and that IS a happy ending! 

I continue to be amazed at the copyright date on so many of my childhood favorite titles.  Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag was first published in 1928.  I have been comparing copyright dates to my father’s age for the students, but this one I had to tell them my grandparents weren’t married or even dating yet!  As evidence that primary students do not have the concepts like time and logic mastered, one of them said, “But how old was your Dad?”  I had to kindly say, “Think for a minute.  If my grandparents hadn’t met yet, could my dad be born?”  Oops.

All of my life I have used this book when I needed to remember the order of huge numbers.  I keep millions and billions and trillions in the proper order by chanting, “Cats here, cats there; cats and kittens everywhere; hundreds of cats, thousands of cats; millions and billions and trillions of cats.” 

Before we started the story, I shared this with the students and wrote on the board:

• 100
• 1,000
• 1,000,000 M
• 1,000,000,000 B
• 1,000,000,000,000 T

The initials after the number help the students remember which is which.  And I invite them to chant those words with me each time we reach them in the narrative.  Many of them (my visual learners) would turn to view the board while they chanted.

The students love the predictability of the book.  “He’s going to pick all of the cats, isn’t he?”  They love the tall tale elements, too.  (Sipping away an entire pond, fighting until they have eaten each other up)  And, again, they love the happy ending with the (formerly homely) most beautiful cat in the world.

I pause only once in this narrative, and that is at the page turn as the quarreling begins.  I ask the students if they have ever heard a cat fight and I imitate that horrible sound.  (Why IS it always outside MY bedroom window in the dead of night?)  Many of the students plug their ears with glee as I screech.  Without further elaboration, we turn the page as the little old woman and the little old man run inside to escape the quarreling.

Millions of Cats does not take long to read – possibly 10 minutes.  I have found it successful to pair read alouds with “true” personal stories, and this was the perfect opportunity.  My story began by sharing how, when I was in 1st grade, I was allowed to get a calico kitten whom I named Whiskers.  I add many details to this oral narrative and used my father’s old farm attitude – “animals belong OUTSIDE” as the theme which tied the narrative together.  The end involved my father and Whisker’s competition over who would sit in the lawn chair.  The chair stayed by our back door so my father could take off his barn boots.  As Whiskers aged she loved that chair, and my father’s methods to remove her were initially unceremonious, but grew more gentle as the years passed.  I came home from college, finally, to find two lawn chairs at the back door; one for Dad and one for her!  Whiskers lived a very long life as an outdoor farm cat, dying peacefully of old age during my first year of teaching.

Leave time for the students to share their cat stories, or encourage them to share their stories with one another at recess or in creative writing, for there will be stories!  Stories beget stories… and primary students will have a million with this topic.  There will be hundreds of cat stories, thousands of cat stories, millions and billions and trillions….