Grandparents Are Special
A reader for upper elementary and middle school students
by: Allyson Rothburd

Student text $7.50

A charming children's story, beautifully illustrated in full color, Grandparents Are Special is for any child who is learning to read and any grandparent, parent or teacher who reads to them.

A reader with a story that crosses generations and cultures
A text of approximately 2000 words at the 600-word level
A touching, true-life tale for upper elementary children

This is the story in brief: Olga goes to her grandparents' hair salon every day after school. She helps out with chores for Grandpa and Grandma.In school, she and her friends from many different countries are learning to read English. One day she asks her grandmother to read a book to her.She is stunned to find out that her grandmother can't read. Instead, Grandma tells her true stories and cooks special treats from the old country for her and for her class. Olga decides to teach Grandma to read. They learn
together. Olga writes one of Grandma's wonderful stories at school, and at family night Grandma can read it! They are very proud of each other.

Allyson Rothburd's teacher's guide includes 13 lessons plans, with variations, that will help the students explore the relevance of the story to their own lives and photocopyable worksheets designed to supplement the lesson plans.

The themes touched on in the story and focused on in the lesson plans are:

people who are special to you
interviewing	safety	occupations
weather/seasons	family	journal writing
languages/countries	nutrition	responsibilities
telling a story	ethnic foods	being helpful
doing something special for someone who is special to you.