Daisy Comes Home

Daisy Comes Home is a wonderful book! Children of the elementary age will thoroughly enjoy this book. It tells the story of a little girl who is dutifully raising six hens and selling their laid eggs at the market on a regular basis. One of the six hens is not well favored by the other five hens. They pick at poor Daisy until she ends up sleeping alone outside of the coop. She ends up in a series of unfortunate events that take her on an interesting journey. But, it is on this voyage down the river that she learns some "survival skills" that she will use later on.
Daisy Comes Home is a beautifully written book that artfully depicts the Chinese culture and countryside. The illustrations are tastefully done. There are surprises in the landscape for the reader to search for as they are reading. This book not only tells the story of a hen's adventure, but gives you a glimpse of what China is like. It shows many Chinese animals other than a hen.

Daisy Comes Home
By Jan Brett
Review By: Jessica Glenn- Elementary Substitute- Central PA
Daisy Comes Home is a story about Mei Mei’s hens and how they were not always the way they are today. It is a story about the hen that Mei Mei calls Daisy, and how she was picked on all the time. It goes into detail about how mean the other hens were to her and the way that they tried to get rid of her by pushing her off the perch. One evening Daisy begins an adventure. She finds herself in a basket floating down the Yangze River and along the way she runs into some trouble with a dog, a water buffalo, red-tailed monkeys, and a fisherman. Daisy survives and at the end of the story she makes it back home and shares with the other hens what she learned on her journey. The hens are all happy then and they make room for Daisy as an equal because she learned to stand up for herself.
This story has amazing detailed pictures in it. It also has a very good lesson on acceptance, standing up for yourself and having confidence and could be applied to bully awareness programs. I would personally use this story with 1st or 2nd graders.

Jan Brett has done it again! This is a delightful tale primarily about a little girl (Mei Mei) and a hen (Daisy) living along the Li River in the Guang Xi Province. The story has many layers and was very well received by my Kindergarten class, both when read in a large group and again independently. The bold, yet intricate illustrations are absolutely captivating. It's a glimpse of rural Chinese culture without the use of photographs and a list of facts. I think it can be both valuable and enjoyable up to second or third grade.
The basic premise of the strory is that Daisy is the smallest and weakest of the hens, and is bullied and ostracized by her housemates. She accidentally gets lost, encounters many frightening situations that she is able to overcome, is rescued when Mei Mei uses profound courage and wit, and returns home to live happily ever after.
My school has a bully prevention program and I am always in search of high quality picture books to use for my weekly lessons. This story offers the opportunity to discuss the themes of bullying and courage without feeling as if I am bashing children over the head with a preachy messsage. Students are able to use their Language Arts skills of building vocabulary, making predictions, making inferences, and comprehending while being entertained in the process. It incorporates animals such as a water buffalo, monkeys, and cormorants. There is the mountainous terrain around the river, baskets, bamboo, pottery and the wide array of vegetables for sale at the marketplace to learn about and discuss. Finally, there is Mei Mei's approach to organic, sustainable farming and the ethical treatment of animals to use as a theme.
Many of the folk tales and other stories I have read for this seminar have included violence and scary images that I prefer not to use with my five and six-year olds. I have no desire to give them nightmares or hear complaints from parents! I was overjoyed to find this story that I feel great about using and that my students love. If you teach at the early elementary level I hope you check it out and enjoy it as much as I did.