Brief overview:
A Nepali folktale about valuing the elderly told from the perspective of a basket, doko.Recommended age range: 8-12 years old
Strengths:
- Beautiful illustrations
- Story adapted from a traditional Nepalese folktale
- Multi-generational families depicted to show the course of our lives and how roles shift over time
- A way to introduce Nepali culture to young readers
- Emphasizes the value of every human life isn't measured by age
- Deals with a heavier topic: our responsibility to care for our aging loved ones
- Seems less suited for the typical picture book audience, but could be useful for families interested in learning about other cultures or for older elementary kids doing a country unit study on Nepal.
- This is a bit more in line with traditional fairytales and touches on its lesson in a heavy hitting sort of way. In this story, the following topics are mentioned: drought, the death of a loved one, injury, a mistake leading to a fire, quarreling, considering sending an elderly loved one somewhere else to provide better care, the child providing the key lesson of the story. I would recommend parents reading this first to determine if this style suites their family.
- Could pair this with a biblical story about how God creates each person in His image and our responsibility to care for others