Firework-Maker’s Daughter

Author:  Philip Pullman

Genre:  Multicultural and International Literature, Chapter Book

This story is about a young girl and her father who is a firework-maker.  The setting seems to be in Asia, possibly Thailand.  The culture is that the country is ruled by a king.  The white elephant is valued as something sacred so it is owned by the king.  The ancient belief is that it costs a lot of money to keep a white elephant so when the king needs to punish someone in his kingdom, he makes them care for the white elephant and feed it and pay for things for the elephant like it is royalty.  The young girl wants to be a firework-maker like her father, but he thinks that is nonsense and she should find a husband and that a firework-maker is not for a girl.  The girl, Lila, finds out that she must go to Mount Merapi and get Royal Sulphur to become a firework-maker.  She goes on this dangerous adventure alone.  Her friend, Hamlet, who can talk to the white elephant and is its personal keeper saves her with magic water she should have taken with her if she had talked to her father.  While on this adventure, her father has been put in prison by the king because he helped the white elephant and Hamlet leave to find Lila.  She goes back and the king says she and her father have to create a firework display in a competition that makes the crowd yell loudest for them to save her father’s life.  They work together and they do win the competition.  Her father apologizes for not helping her be a firework-maker and tells her about the three gifts to be a firework-maker which she did possess.

This book would be a book to have students read a chapter each day.  We would discuss what was important to the Asian culture in each chapter each day.  For example, why her father didn’t want her to be a firework-maker?  What was the holiday they celebrated with fireworks?  For each chapter we would use the computer to look up something about the Asian culture.  We would keep a class chart till we finished the book.  Then I would have the students imagine that they were a firework-maker and draw a picture of a firework display they would like to create to share with the class.  The back of the book has a section on the white elephant and why they are sacred.  It also has a section on how fireworks are made and how they differ in other countries.  Also, this book could be related to units in science and the study of reactions using different chemicals.