Fortune Cookie Fortunes

Fortune Cookie Fortunes

Author: Grace Lin

Illustrator: N/A

Copyright, Dragonfly Books, 2006

32 pages

Multicultural

                I chose this book because I have always loved fortune cookies. I think that fortune cookies are always fun to read when you go out to eat. This story is about a little girl who gets a fortune cookie with the rest of her family. While they go around reading their fortunes her sister wants to know if she thinks they will come true. Well she believes that the fortunes do come true. Suddenly things start to happen that go hand in hand with what the families fortunes say. So she wonders if her fortune will come true as well. Her fortune is “You will see the world differently”. Will her fortune come true, is her family’s fortune coming true? You will never know unless you read Fortune Cookie Fortunes.

                The illustrations in this book are very bold and colorful. The pictures are done in watercolor and pen and ink. The pictures also help tell the story. The pictures have fortune cookie saying printed throughout the story. There are numerous fortunes throughout the book this also helps tell the story. The text is easy to read and would be good for young readers. The text goes normal straight across. This book would be good for late Kindergarten through fourth grade. I think that older students may enjoy the book as well but it may be too young for most of them.

                Classroom connections for this book could be fun. You could have several fortunes made, the students have to pick a fortune and then write about what they think their life would be like if the fortune came true. The teacher can also do a history lesson on how the fortune cookie originated.  The teacher could tell the students why it was invented as well as why the Chinese culture views them as so important. Lastly the students can create their own fortune cookies and put fortunes that they think are important into a cookie. The students and teachers can make them together and present them to the class and share what fortune they received and then watch to see if their fortunes come true.