Easystart: The Fireboy

by Stephen Rabley

Original / British English
Hapu lives in Ancient Egypt. Hapu’s father is ill, but they haven’t got any money for a doctor. Hapu makes a beautiful necklace for Queen Cleopatra and takes it to her. But a guard says, ‘Go home’. How can Hapu meet the Queen and get a doctor for his father?

32 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 1991

Reviews

[Ziwei Cheng · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book talks about a boy named Hapu, who lived in Ancient Egypt at the time of Queen Cleopatra. His dad owned a small factory producing gold tables and chairs. He helps his dad and so he is called “fire boy”. His dad promises that they will become rich in one day. But before that day comes his dad got sick. So, Hapu decided to make a lot of gold chairs, tables and gold necklaces. He decided to sell the necklaces to the richest people-- the queen. The queen didn’t want to meet him at first. But Hapu didn’t give up. He got to know the Cleopatra’s women will come to the market tomorrow. So, he caught the women there and showed her the necklace. The queen really liked the necklace. Then, she gave Hapu lots of gold and asked Hapu and his dad to come to work for her.

I really like the story because when he decided to do something, the fire boy does not give up. Instead, the fire boy was determined to things best and never gave up. He was a boy with filial piety. This can be seen that he tried his best to treat his dad no matter how hard he had experienced during the hardship of his business.

This book is suitable for the ESL learners and the 3-6 years old children. Although the book is very easy and simple, it still has a few new words to be used to expand the beginners or the ESL learners’ vocabulary level. In addition, the book is full of the colorful pictures and thus helps the readers understand the texts easily the contents of the story. The most important thing is that the book leaves enough imagination space for the readers to think about what happens in the story. Through this way, the readers have got chances to train their critical thinking and other language abilities such as sentence-making and paragraph organizing. This is because teachers can use this material to let the learners and small kids to do story report exercises after their readings. Meanwhile, those learners and small kids also learn the simple language styles shown in the story, such as short simple sentences, clear grammar patterns. The last thing is that, pictures are used to help beginning learners and young kids to have a better understanding of the stories. Almost 2/3 of the contents are accompanied by picture illustration in the book. This design not only enriches the colorfulness to attract young learners but also reduce the reading difficulties of the stories.
In a word, the design of the pictures in the book, its simple language style and interesting contents really attract me. I think that this is a good book for ESL beginners and young learners.

[MOMOKAGA · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the story of Hapu.Hapu is a hero in this book.He lives in Ancient Egypt at the time of Queen Cleopatra.Oneday,his father,Bak,become ill,but they don't have enough money to go to hospital.So hapu try to make beautiful neckress,and try to sell to Queen Cleopatra.Can he see her or not...
This story is interesting.I want everyone to read this book.

[Miss Kodok · Rating 3 out of 5]

When there is a will there is a way

[Fani Tr Kem · Rating 3 out of 5]

The fireboy

Αυτή είναι η ιστορία του Hapu, του μικρού Αιγύπτιου σκλάβου ο οποίος έζησε στα χρόνια της Κλεοπάτρας και είχε βάλει σκοπό της ζωής του να βρει έναν τρόπο να γίνει πλούσιος για να ξεκουράσει τον γέρο πατέρα του από την σκληρή εργασία που έκανε. Τελικά αποδεικνύεται τόσο έξυπνος ώστε καταφέρνει με μια έξυπνη κίνηση του να μετακομίσει με τον πατέρα του στο παλάτι και να γίνουν μόνιμοι υπάλληλοι της ίδιας της βασίλισσας της Αιγύπτου. Αν λοιπόν τα κατάφερε ο Hapu μήπως να μην πάψουμε κι εμείς να ονειρευόμαστε;