Pinduli

Janell Cannon is one of my favorite children's book authors. I shared her book called "Pinduli with the Grade 5/6.

Pinduli is a young hyena who is always complimented by her mother. When Pinduli goes out into the African land she is met by many animals on the savannah who make hurtful comments about her ears, her hair, and her stripes. She transforms her appearance with mud and she keeps her ears down so no one would recognize her. On her way home she meets the animals that insulted her appearance. Luckily, they did not know who she was and thought she was a ghost spirit. This gave her an opportunity to ask them to meet with one another to talk about how bad their name calling is. So, when she went home and bathed, her ears stood up and she was once again her mother's pride and joy.

I chose this book to share with the middle grades so they would have empathy for the situation that Pinduli was in. A few words can be very painful when someone's appearance is insulted. This chain of events had a happy ending on the African savannah lands.