The One Thing You'd Save: what an answer reveals about a person

 

The One Thing You'd Save, an illustrated verse picture book by Linda Sue Park and Robert Sae-Heng is  a unique story told in an unforgettable way.  Students in Ms. Chang's class are asked to consider what item they would save if there was a fire, given that their family was all safe.  Each student gets to share their ideas but it goes much deeper than giving one word answers.  Everyone's background, privilege, and what's most important to them is revealed--a collection of animal figurines, shoes, memories of lost loved ones, money, even a phone!

This book is meant to be read aloud and discussed. The detailed, black-and-white illustrations add to each child's answers and they make the reader want to flip back and examine them again after reading the entirety of the book.  There are serious issues to be considered, like grief, family bonds, friendship dynamics, and lighter, humorous ideas, too. In my experience I think this would be best used with 9 year olds and up. Readers can debate their predictions about each child, if they would choose those items, if they can relate to what was picked, and ultimately, what they would choose if they had to pick one, too.

Park captures the characters' voices with authentic dialects, slang and even the teacher uses those tried-and-true teacher phrases!  For such a slim book, only 65 pages, there is a multitude of emotions gently packed into it.  At the Author's Note at the end, Park explains how she used the Korean poetry style, sijo, pronounced SHEE-zho, in the story.  This doesn't look like traditional poetry that readers are used to seeing so it is a good opportunity for them to learn about a different style of poetry.  This can even serve as a writing prompt for students to try to write their own version of a sijo poem to explain what they would take in case of a fire.  

TeachingBooks.net has additional teaching resources, and even an audio excerpt for this book! For free reader's guides and discussion guides, visit the HMH webpage and look on the right-hand side to download them.  You can also catch an embedded video of Park talking about her book there, too!