Word of the Week/Two of Everything

It's time for our Word of the Week feature here at LitLad. Here's how it works: The boys and I choose a different book once a week and they pick a word from it for which they don't know the meaning. They each write the word on Sunday night and we try to use it in conversation as much as we can throughout the week.

This week's word is humble, an adjective that in this book means "simple; not fancy."

And we're reading Two of Everything, in which an old and very poor couple lives in a humble hut.

Two of Everything
Author/illustrator: Lily Toy Hong
Publisher: Albert Whitman & Company (January 1993)
Source: Elementary school library

Based on a Chinese folktale, this is a story about Mr. and Mrs. Haktak, a farmer and his wife who eat from their garden and trade their vegetables for the things they need. One day Mr. Haktak finds a pot and the two Haktaks discover that when something goes in the pot, twice as much comes out. After figuring this out they decide to double their money so they can buy anything they want, but when Mr. Haktak returns from a shopping trip to the village, he startles his wife so much that she falls into the pot. What happens afterward made Johnny Boo want to read this book a second time.

A book to go along with Two of Everything: How the Ox Star Fell From Heaven, also by Lily Toy Hong.

An activity to go along with this book: Magic Pot Game.

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