The Little Match Girl

Biblographic Information: Pinkney, J. (2002). The little match girl. New York, New York: Puffin Books.

Annotation: This is a story about a little girl from an impoverished family and her struggle to stay warm one cold winter night while selling paper flowers and matches on the city streets.

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade Level: 1-5

Readers Who Will Like This Book: Someone who has or is experiencing struggles in his or her life as well as young girls who can relate to the main character.

Personal Response and Rating: I rate this book a 3. I felt the illustrations worked well in partnership with the text to convey the mood and emotions of the characters. Though the ending appears tragic, if one views it from the little girls perspective, it is actually a happy ending.

Prereading Question: Have you even lost someone or something very dear to you?

Reading Strategy Connection:

A. Reading Strategy - Anticipation Guide

B. Description of Strategy - Students are given a list of statements and are asked if they agree or disagree with each statement. The statements relate to the theme or other concepts contained within the story. Students may also be ask to provide a brief explanation to their response.

C. Rational - Anticipation guides are an excellent way to facilitate personal connections with the story on a deeper level and to consider the opinions of others. This is not a light carefree story and I believe having a deeper discussion about what is actually happening and students' personal feelings can help the students better understand why they reacted the way they did or make sense of their emotional response to the story.