The Gift of the Sun: A Tale from South Africa

by Dianne Stewart, Jude Daly (Illustrations)

In this witty book based on an African folk tale, Thulani prefers sitting in the sun to doing his chores. Tired of milking the cow, he trades her in for a goat. When the goat gets into the corn seed, he trades it for a sheep. Sick of shearing, he buys some geese, which then get exchanged for some sunflower seeds. With each trade, his hard-working wife gets more and more exasperated. Can Thulani redeem himself and still have time for his favorite hobby, doing nothing? Droll text and lively illustrations make this book ideal for repeated readings.

Genres: Picture Books, Africa, Childrens, Family, Geography, Nature, Cultural

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1996

Reviews

[Sehrish]

This is our main text for Literacy for the next 10 days for SBT1 and I am teaching the first lesson in which I will introduce the text to the children. This book is about a man called Thulani living in Africa wanting a simple life basking in the sun but his wife Dora was very hard working. One day when Thulani is milking the cow he decides that he is tired of milking the cow so he goes and sells the cow and brings home a grizzly old billy goat but his wife was not happy. "What good is this goat to us" she says to him. Thulani goes back to enjoying himself in the sun but one day the goat strays into their house and eats all their seeds. Thulani then goes and sells the goat and brings home a sheep. His wife is still not happy but thinks at least they can sell her fleece. One day when Thulani Shears the sheep he thinks to himself this work is too much and goes and exchanges the sheep for 3 geese. When his wife Dora sees them she tells him that it's spring, they need to plant crops and they have no seeds because the goat had eaten them. The next day he goes back and exchanges the geese with some seeds hoping his wife Dora would be pleased with him.
As the seeds grow Dora realises that Thulani had planted sunflower seeds. Dora was not happy! "what good are they to us? all they do is follow the sun just like you" she says to him. Thulani was sad because all he wanted to do was please his wife but was not able to do that in anyway. Then one day as the Sunflowers dropped seeds to the ground Thulani gets a gift from the sun which changes his life forever...
This book is suitable for KS1 as they will be able to explore what life is like in Africa and will be introduced to a variety imaginative vocabulary. I have prepared some colorful images of the animals we meet in the story for ch to go back to as the planned lessons will build up to children retelling the story themselves. I have also chosen some challenging vocabulary from the story which i will thread during the introduction of the story and also keep it displayed on the white board for children to use when they are retelling. I really enjoyed this book and hope that the children enjoy it too.

[Sarahs Reads ToKids]

This was an interesting story to read with the kids. This was the first time we picked it up and we enjoyed it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cause and effect tale

[Alice · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars - sunflowers :)

[Chris Lutz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Title: Gift of the Sun: A Tale from South Africa
Author: Dianne Stewart
Illustrator: Jude Daly
Genre: Non-European Folktale, South African Folktale
Theme(s): Persistence, Trading for the future, Big things come in small packages, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.
Opening line/sentence: Thulani loved to bask all day in the sun.
Brief Book Summary: A South African farmer trades a cow because he likes to sleep in the sun instead of working. Once he trades away nearly everything he can farm, he needs to find a way to make do with what he has left to try and get more valuable resources.
Professional Recommendation/Review #1: School Library Journal
Grade 1-3?Thulani loves to spend his days sitting in the sun and hates to have his leisure interrupted by chores. Tired of milking the cow, he trades her in for a goat. When the goat gets into the corn seed, he exchanges it for a sheep. When shearing it is too much trouble, he buys some geese. With each trade, his hard-working wife becomes more and more exasperated. Thinking to please her, the man exchanges the geese for a bag of seeds. But when they sprout, Dora is more upset than ever. It seems that he won't ever make her happy. However, when Thulani feeds the sunflower seeds to the chickens, the hens begin to lay more eggs, and, in the end, the story has come full circle. Dora is delighted, and Thulani is now busy trading animals. His favorite time of day is milking time?when he can finally sit down and have a quiet think. Daly's paintings add to the charm of this story. Bright gold end papers scattered with seeds introduce the good-humored mood. The color scheme of soft greens and golds emphasizes the warm pastoral setting. This is a fresh, funny variation on the "Lazy Jack" theme, with illustrations done in a folkart style and filled with little details of South African rural life.?Barbara Kiefer, Teachers College, Columbia University, NY
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Professional Recommendation/Review #2: Kirkus Reviews
The plainspoken tale of a rural South African who seeks to simplify his life by selling his encumbrances. Thulani prefers basking in the sun to milking his cow, so he sells the cow and buys a goat. He continues to trade down, until he is left with nothing more than some sunflower seeds. In a twist of fate, the sunflower seeds lead Thulani back to prosperity. After he acquires a whole yard full of animals, he becomes so busy trading them that he doesn't have any time to languish in the sunshine. He realizes that milking cows leads to some of his best thinking. Daly's atmospheric illustrations--a folk-art style that finds precision in the shape of seeds--capture the spare beauty of life in rural South Africa. (Picture book. 5+) -- Copyright ©1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Response to Two Professional Reviews: I really enjoyed this book because of all the different steps Thulani takes when trading the animals. I agree that the illustrations really help paint a picture of the life on the farm. It's not like a traditional farm with grass and lots of green space. Since it takes place in Africa I really like how the illustrations are able to set the scene so well especially with the detail of the expressions of the characters in each page.
Evaluation of Literary Elements: This book does an awesome job of addressing the themes of being persistent and solving problems. It’s fun to follow the flow of trades that Thulani makes to please Dora. He could be upset and discouraged when his initial trades end up giving them nothing but sunflower seeds, but he uses them to grow his farm even larger than it originally was. It also addresses the theme that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side. Thulani originally trades away his cow because he doesn’t like milking it, but at the end, compared to everything else he would have to do with the other animals he traded for, he actually likes milking cows best of all.
Consideration of Instructional Application: For my class application, I think that I would like to create a class game with the trade aspect of The Gift of the Sun. It could be used for a math lesson because they all could pick something different to start out with on their farm, then they could trade things at the market to get other things they would like. This way they could follow the same problem solving that Thulani had to go through, plus they could see what it takes to take care of each animal. The students would have a certain amount of money to start out with and then they could spread that money to buy different resources at the market to set themselves up for later. I think it would be a fun game about budgeting and just trade in general.

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is an excellent book to use to assist with literacy lessons. In the story, we follow Thulani and Dora in their lives in South Africa. Thulani loves to lie in the sun and sleep while poor Dora does most of the work. Thulani grows tired of having to milk his cow and so sells it for a goat. He thinks Dora will be very pleased, but the cheeky goat ends up eating their supply of corn! Thulani then exchanges the goat for a sheep. Dora was pleased as she thought they could sell the wool. However, Thulani soon grows tired of shearing the sheep and decides to exchange it for geese. Dora is not happy and reminds Thulani that they need to plant seeds as it is spring. Once again, Thulani makes the journey to town to exchange the geese for some seeds. Dora is pleased that he has arrived with seeds and praises him. Although, as time goes on the seeds sprout, and grow, they discover the seeds Thulani planted are in fact sunflower seeds. Their disappointment is evident and they decide to feed the fall-out seeds to the hens. To their surprise, the seeds encourage the hens to produce more eggs. Dora and Thulani are both ecstatic and realise they can sell the eggs.

Children will enjoy the colourful pictures in this book and will discuss the consequences of Thulani's actions. There are numerous lessons that can be based around this book from setting the scene, character descriptions, writing a letter and general comprehension.

[Tonty Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thulani loves to sit about and relax in the sun. He felt that it was too much work to milk his cow and he decided to sell the cow and bought a goat because goats can take care of themselves but his wife, Dora was not happy. One day the goat strayed into their house and ate all the corn. Thulani went out and exchanged the goat for a sheep and his wife was okay with it because she felt that they could sell the fleece. Thulani felt that shearing the sheep was hard-work and he decided to exchange it for three geese but Dora reminded him that it was spring time and they needed to plant some seeds. In order to please Dora, Thulani went and exchanged the three geese for seeds and planted them. As the seeds grew Dora was surprised to see that Thulani had planted sunflower seeds and she was not happy. One day the sunflower dropped to the ground and Thulani fed the hens with it and the hens lay more eggs than ever before. Finally Dora was pleased and happy.

I like this story because the lesson behind it is about the benefit of hard work, it has very colorful pictures that would help pupils engage during reading. This book is suitable for KS1 because of the words used. It can be used to read to a class, for independent reading, to inspire creative writing and for curriculum support in regards to science and art.

[Debbie Hedin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Gift of the Sun is a simple, beautiful folk tale from South Africa. Thulami,the farmer, wants a simple life that will allow him to sit back and enjoy the sun. He tries several different schemes and,in the end, receives a gift from the sun that allows him to do just that.
The dialogue was simple, which is fitting for a farmer and his wife. However, the narration has a descriptive flair. The nature of the story keeps you guessing as to what Thulami will come up with next.
The universality of the tale will show children the similarities between cultures. Without the pictures you could imagine yourself in the heart of the Midwestern United States. It is the enhancing illustrations that give us a glimpse into the simple, stark reality of the lifestyle of a South African farmer.

[Sima Mittal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thulani is a lazy but adorable husband to his wife. He loves to BASK aim the sun! This use of BASK connects deeply to me!
THIS BOOK is a landmark colossal phenomenon more me because it uses ADULTS in a children’s book and beats the fact that children’s books should contain children’s characters only!
Dianne Stewart; I pray for your happiness and safety. HAPPY LIFE DAY!
I pray we meet some day!

I STILL LOVE TO REREAD over and over again! It is a COMFORT food for my SOUL!

[AJ Payne · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife got me this children's book for my birthday, to start the book collection we will have for our kids - since I want to have books about and from Africa for them. Nice story about working hard (eventually) and what can grow from a little effort. Not a huge "moral of the story" type book, but it's a nice and easy story, and the illustrations are interesting with skewed perpsective.

[Cara Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming South African story of well-meaning Thulani and how his impulsive decisions to sell various animals/seeds actually winds up being profitable in the end. He begins with a cow, then moves to a goat, a sheep, geese, and sunflower seeds. Clever ending. Recommended.

[Nathan Willard · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book showing the discovery of the cycle of farm living. Nonetheless, it didn't really catch on with my 3 year-old.

[Rani · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thulani enjoys nothing more than sitting in the sun. But a bag of sunflower seeds changed his life forever, for good.

[Weldon Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

its good