Book of the Week - One Grain of Rice

The Book

One Grain of Rice By Demi
Can be found at your local library or any major book store. (We got our copy through the scholastic school book ordering program, which is a great way to get paperback books at an extremely good price. Even if you don't have kids in school, this is a good resource worth checking into your local school to see if you can join their order. Teachers get points to use the points to get books for their classroom.)

Quick Synopsis

A little girl saves her hungry people from a greedy rajah by being smart. She takes a moment of serendipity and turns it into an even greater opportunity and teaches everyone a lesson at the same time. The Rajah in all his greed willingly grants the girl a simple reward. Even though the girl ends up with all of the rice, she is not greedy in return and the Rajah learns his lesson.

How to Teach Kids About Money

For even little kids, they will understand how the greedy rajah loses all of his rice. This also teaches a great lesson on how the girl could have been greedy and taught the rajah a lesson, but instead she shared with everyone. The girl was able to recognize when she had enough, which is more than the rajah was able to do.
As kids get older they will be able to grasp the wonders of compounding interest. This story does an excellent job of giving a visual example of what can happen when you save. Now you will have to be clear that interest in a bank does not compound daily like the rice in a story. And you will be lucky if you can find a bank that will give you the same percentage of return, but it is a great example of a concept that may be hard for some to grasp.
The One Grain of Rice could easily be used to share how important saving even the smallest amount of money can be.

Here is a recipe for a rice salad that is perfect for a summer time treat and companion for this book:


Summer Time Rice Salad


1. Combine in a large bowl:
6 Cups Fresh Torn Spinach
2 Cups Cooled Cooked Wild Rice
1 Cup Green Grapes Cut In Half
1/4 Cup Sunflower Seeds

2. mix and then pour over:
1/4 Cup White Balsamic Vinegar
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Pure Honey
2 Teaspoons Fresh Basil
Pinch of salt
pinch of black pepper

3. Sprinkle on top:
1 Cup Raspberries
2 Oranges Peeled And Sectioned

4. Serve as a side dish or a main course salad

(your favorite oil and vinegar dressing can be substituted for step #2)

Check out more ideas at WFMW at We are That Family.

Please share comments. I always love to hear what people think.