O QUE SALVAR?

by Rafael Mantovani

O exercício é escolher um único objeto para salvar em um incêndio. A partir de uma questão provocadora sobre a importância de cada coisa, Linda Sue Park capta as múltiplas vozes de uma sala de aula e as reproduz em versos inspirados no sijo, uma forma de poesia coreana.

Genres: Poetry, Middle Grade, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Childrens, Picture Books, Novel In Verse

Paperback

First published March 16, 2021

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

a fun little book that taught me about a Korean form of poetry called sijo. Sijo is an ancient classic form of poetry with three lines of thirteen to seventeen syllables. The can be either 3 long lines or divided into 6 shorter lines.
The story itself was a classroom assignment and discussion about what one thing each student would save in a fire once all members of the family and pets were safe. It certainly got me thinking about the one thing I might save. A favorite book? my laptop? a box of photos taken from my mom's house after her death. Boy got to get all those pictures in my laptop today.

[Darla · Rating 4 out of 5]

If I could choose just one thing, what would I save? Having loved ones and pets already safe frees one up to think more broadly. Would I choose differently if it were day or night? Perhaps it is an item that was handmade just for me and is irreplaceable. Or it may be something that I grab to be helpful to a family member. Several of the students in Ms. Chang's class share their choice in small poems with accompanying black and white illustrations. After hearing what the students would choose, the teacher decides to make a different choice. Perhaps your one thing will be different when you get to the end of the book. My one thing is a stuffed cat that my grandma made from quilting squares. Even though my family thinks it is ugly, it has been a special keepsake for me for decades.

[Scottsdale Public Library]

In this beautiful children’s novel in verse, a teacher asks her students a question: Your home is on fire and your family and pets are safe. You are allowed to save one thing. Which item would you save? What follows are sweet and heartwarming answers ranging from a baseball card, cellphone, sweater, or an entire bookcase. Each item holds sentimental value to the child and their explanations are at times beautiful and sad. With wonderful illustrations throughout, this little novel should not be missed. ~Jenny L.

[Madara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok... This was AMAZING. Did I cry a bit? Yep. Do I want this book in my collection? YES!
What would you save if there was a fire? Just one thing. It's hard to pick just one thing. It would take me ages to decide.
A perfect book to read with children. Or by yourself.

Review copy provided by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Rachel Aranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine but nothing special.

This was categorized as a poetry book in my library and if it wasn’t for the author’s note at the end I wouldn’t understand why it was. The author’s note stated that these are poems in a sijo, an ancient Korean style, format. I think it would have been better if this piece of information had been in the beginning of the book instead of the end.

It was interesting being in a classroom where we were able to look into people’s inner thoughts and “real-life” conversations with theirs class. The switch between inner monologues of different students and conversations in the class was all over the place so I can see why some readers found this book confusing or jumbled. Truthfully, I don’t see this book being super memorable to me, which is why I chose a 3 star rating.

[Beth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really not a story at all. It’s got hints of story around the edges - tiny peeks at characterization - but this is almost what it says it’s not, right at the beginning:

For once we got good homework, not useless stuff like worksheets.

This reads like a worksheet to me.

It’s not useless, but it’s not story, either. It’s written in verse; I probably wouldn’t have noticed if it hadn’t all been center-aligned, I just would have thought it was overly choppy. But it is center-aligned, and less easy to read as a result.

[Mid-Continent Public Library]

If I could choose just one thing, what would I save? Having loved ones and pets already safe frees one up to think more broadly. Would I choose differently if it were day or night? Perhaps it is an item that was handmade just for me and is irreplaceable. Or it may be something that I grab to be helpful to a family member. Several of the students in Ms. Chang's class share their choice in small poems with accompanying black and white illustrations. After hearing what the students would choose, the teacher decides to make a different choice. Perhaps your one thing will be different when you get to the end of the book. My one thing is a stuffed cat that my grandma made from quilting squares. Even though my family thinks it is ugly, it has been a special keepsake for me for decades.
*Reviewed by Darla from Red Bridge*

[Isabelle reads a book a day because she has no friends · Rating 5 out of 5]

April 25, 2021: I did not expect to laugh and I certainly did not expect to cry. This is such a beautiful project and the poems are so heartfelt. I just read the ebook, but I immediately want a copy for my bookshelf! This is the quality stuff you force your friends to read and they thank you for it. 5/5 stars of soul food.

April 28, 2022: I finally bought and reread this gem, and it was just as beautiful as the first time. I am only now realizing that it’s been almost exactly a year since I first found and read it. Now I am going to do as I said in 2021 and force my mom to do the same.

[Roslyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first this felt a bit banal to me - and I didn't even realise that the text consisted of poems because it read like prose - but as I continued, the mosaic of voices and the delightful illustrations won me over. A quick and charming read.

[Moonkiszt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Featured in a grandma reads session.

This is a book with a big question. . .what is the one thing you'd save if you were abandoning your home at top speed?

Family is all safe and taken care of, so that's not an issue, and whatever it is it can be any size (so if it's a grand piano, that works), but it can only be one thing, big or small that you take with you. Just one. What is it?

It is asked by a teacher to her class of students, and the result is interesting and got my group of listeners interested as it related to them. The author had the answers come up in a Korean poetry format as she goes around the room and asks each student to share. There is a little bit of character development, they answer ". . . .borrowing the line structure from sijo. A sijo (pronounced SHEE-zho) is an ancient form of traditional Korean poetry. A classic sijo has three lines of thirteen to seventeen syllables. Sometimes the three lines are divided into six shorter ones. A few of the poems in the book were written using both short and long lines." (from the Author's Note at the end).

My favorite? I loved them all. . .but this one grabbed my heart:

"It's not like it's cute of anything. Truth, it's kinda ugly.
Muddy blue, way too big for me, all droopy in the sleeves.
But sometimes things are so ugly they're cute, know what I mean?

Ages ago my gran kitted a sweater for my dad
He wore it and wore it and wore it right out. Then my other gran,
who lives with us, unraveled it and knitted a new sweater

for me. So I'd save that sweater. But grans and my dad --
maybe this will sound silly, but when I'm wearing it,
it's kinda like all three of them are keeping me warm."

My group enjoyed this book, and the post-read discussion about what they'd save in a quick exit. Any book that generates discussions goes up a star.

[Jenni Heins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Happy to learn of sijo in the endnotes. But was expecting more.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This would be great for teachers to use as a springboard for discussions or writing but since the narrators are not identified, I believe it will be confusing for many of my students.

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting assignment for a class to discuss and an interesting form of poetry with which I wasn’t familiar.

[Elizabeth☮ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A teacher gives her students an assignment: if there were a fire, what one thing would you save? (Family and pets are already safe). The students must think about their answer and then have a discussion in class.

It’s nice to hear the conversation that ensues. After completing it, the notes indicate the book is written in verse commonly used in Korean poetry.

[Hayden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deep meaning.

[Melissa Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mumford. My wedding rings if Mumford is saved by Ryder.
6 year old answer: that question hurts my feelings. You can’t ask me that. It makes me want to cry.
(His entire stuftie collection)

[Eva B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thought provoking, sad yet fun, and also written in a really unique style of verse!

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but profound. This tiny book packs a powerful punch as a class of students decides what is the one thing they’d save in a fire. Told from multiple perspectives using a poetic form called sijo, this book deserves multiple reads.

[Claudia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What starts as a pretty mundane assignment, What would you save in a fire if you could only save one thing, reveals that the teacher may not know her 'scholars' as well as she thought, but finally brings an entire class together as they are vulnerable and honest. A class is asked to go home and look around. Then decide the "one thing" they would save.

The student who actually survived a fire KNOWS the answer, but the rest play along. We see class dynamics play out, we watch students listen to each other and reassess. The teacher even reassesses her choice.

Beautiful and moving in its simplicity, as we learn what these kids value above all else.

Written in sijo, a Korean poetic form of three lines of 13 to 17 syllables...the three lines can be divided into six shorter lines. Park uses this complex form to tell a beautiful story, and makes us forget we're reading complex lines of poetry.

[Afoma (Reading Middle Grade) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Linda Sue Park’s The One Thing You’d Save is a unique hybrid of sorts. It’s geared toward middle schoolers, but has lovely black and white illustrations on nearly every page. It is also less than 80 pages long, with sparse text in the Korean sijo poetry style.

By the end of the class, even the teacher rethinks her choices, just as every reader will. This book might not satisfy you, if like me you enjoy plot, but it will make you think about the one thing, or things that matter most to you. Teachers and middle schoolers alike will find this book to be an excellent conversation starter, and the illustrations will entice reluctant and younger readers.

Reviewed for MGBookVillage.

Thanks to the publisher for an eARC via NetGalley.

[donna backshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Children are wired differently. Their brains don't confine their ideas like our adult brains do. For them, it's all outside the box, because to them, there is no box.

That said, this children's narrative is a delight to my suffocating adult brain. Their ideas and values are so pure and genuine. It would take me forever to decide what to take, if I could only pull one valued thing out of a fire. To them the answers seem to come swiftly and easily. They trusted their guts, and they just knew.

I envy them for this certainty, because they all chose so well.

[Elizabeth Jorgensen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book of sijo! In this book, a class of students discus the one thing they'd save if there were a fire. I love how the teacher clearly has built a safe and engaging space where each student's voice matters -- even the teacher's!

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed The One Thing You'd Save, and I thought it was a fun prompt to discuss.

[Beth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that defies genre.

It's not a picture book.
It's not a novel.
It not a novel in verse.

And yet it's all of those things while being none of those things.

[Melanie Dulaney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park writes both poetry and prose with such heart and insight. In “The One Thing You’d Save,” Ms. Chang’s class shares the one must-have item that would join them as they flee from a house fire with their family and pets’ safety already assured. In the Korean sijo style of poetry, students explain their choices amid outstanding sketches created by artist Robert Sae-Heng. Readers will be led to think about what physical objects really matter to them and may find themselves trying to puzzle out student names and items selected! Librarians could easily shelve this book inthe fiction or poetry sections of their libraries and might want to consider having one copy for each, especially given the recent surge in popularity of novels in verse.

[Leanndra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book really reminded me of the beauty in human sentimentality.

A group of students is asked to complete an assignment: to ponder the question of what one thing they would grab if their house was on fire (presuming family / pets are already accounted for). Their answers, told in verse, reminded me that everyone has keepsakes that tell a story.

Adding this book to my classroom wishlist, as I think my students would enjoy it.

[katayoun Masoodi · Rating 5 out of 5]

so many stories, hidden inside all these little poems. i also liked it, cause i do sometimes think about the things i would save, and that there are too many 'things' that i have, i must form less attachments. also i must take photos of all my paintings and backup all my photos and books :) and also loved the sweater, must ask my mom-in-law to knit me something :)

[disco · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would save my nudes.

[₊˚ ⁀➴ kenzie ⠀❦ jacks’ version · Rating 2 out of 5]

The poems were confusing and choppy.

[- ̗̀ Riki Lopez ̖́- · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very cute for what it was