U is for The Umbrella Thief: Library Notes

by Sybil Wettasinghe

 This book is an authentic Sri Lankan tale that describes a man's exciting experience of being the first to introduce umbrellas to his small village.  When I first began this blog, this is one of the first books I wanted to share with you so I am excited that we are 21 weeks in and got to the letter U!

Below are eight elements of a story that can be used to help you describe a book and how they are fulfilled in Umbrella Thief

Setting:  The Where and When of the story: The setting is in Sri Lanka, in a small village and in the capital city.  It is understood that this story happened many years ago.

Characters:  The Who(s) of the story:  The main character is the Uncle (Mama) named Kiri-mama who often talks to the tea shop owner. However, we are also trying to figure out who is the umbrella thief.

Plot: The What of the story (what happened): Kiri-mama wants to introduce the concept of an umbrella to his village but a thief kept coming and stealing each umbrella. Kiri-mama eventually developed a plan to discover the identity of the umbrella thief.

Conflict: The central problem of the story: Who was the thief? How could the mystery be resolved?

Theme:  The main message/idea/moral of the story; the Why:  Sometimes what looks like a problem is actually a form of blessing in disguise.

Point of View: The perspective the story is told from: Who is the storyteller?  The book is a third person narrative.

Tone:  The overall emotion of the book;  Calm acceptance that things happen in life that are disappointing but there is hope of a good outcome.

Style:  How is the story being told? How do the word choices and sentence structure contribute to the tone of the book? It is a village story.  There is no rush but just a flow of events across a flow of days represented in part by the regular trips to the tea shop to sit and talk.

Other comments:

Imagery Find an example such as "The umbrellas made village alive with colour."

Art:  The patterns inspire you to decorate your own umbrella (paint a real umbrella?)  The artist who illustrated the book also has a specific style and use of colour that can be discussed.

Prediction:  Who do YOU think stole the umbrellas? Why?

Text to self discussion:  Do you lose things easily like he did?

Text to world discussion:  Like Kiri-mama, do you talk and laugh about many things with others?  Do you have an idea of something you could do to change your world, even just a little, like he did when he added the colour and protection from the sun and rain by introducing the umbrellas?

Activity:  Can you follow a trail of paper a long way to find something specific?

Comprehension:  How did he bring about a good ending to the story?.  Who was the thief?

There are many ideas on what you can do with the child(ren) in your life when you read a book.  This book gives an interesting introduction to village life in Sri Lanka and reminds children that all cultures have contributions to make to the world through experiences unique to their time and place.  Enjoy!



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