The Seven Chinese Brothers

Summary:

 The Seven Brothers that lived and worked together all had unique gifts. Not one of the two brothers were alike. They worked together to begin to mend a hole in the Great Wall of China. But the emperor confused the seven brothers for one man (since they each had different talents) and was afraid of the brothers. He sent the armies after the brothers and they came upon the Third Brother, arrested him and began to cry. The First Brother with excellent hearing heard his brother and knew that he and his brothers had to go to his rescue. The brothers all continued to switch with each other and repeatedly confused the emperor with their skills. These skills included supreme hearing, growth, strength and heat tolerance. The emperor attempted to kill one of the brothers and the Seventh Brother began to cry, his tears were so large that they flooded China. Finally when he stopped crying the seven brothers were reunited again at the Great Wall of China and were able to be free of the emperor.

Author: Margaret MahyMahy was born in New Zealand and is a published writer of over fifty books. Some of her other works include: The Man Whose Mother Was a Pirate and A Lion in the Meadow. She is a member of the Order of New Zealand and is a winner of the Hans Christian Andersen Award. She still lives in New Zealand to this day.

Theme/Skill: Multi-cultural, Fairytale, Fiction, Fantasy

Grade Level: 2-6

Pre-Reading Activity:

Discuss with students what the Great Wall of China is and some elements of Chinese culture. Many students think that they all look and speak the same. While reading this book you can show the students that each of these brothers have their own unique skill.

Post-Reading Activity:

Allow students to write about what they would do if they were one of the seven brothers. Would you help your siblings like they did? Has there been a time where you had to help your siblings or cousins in that way?

Reflection:

As a Social Studies teacher I did enjoy the fact that this story included some geography and some of their culture. Students would be able to get from this story that the Chinese do have their own folktales or fairyt ales and they are different than ours, but still have a "happy" end of the story.