Listen to the Wind
THE STORY of Dr. GREG & THREE CUPS OF TEA
By: Greg Mortenson and Susan L. Roth
About Greg Mortenson
Email: info@ikat.org
Website: www.gregmortenson.com
Phone: 406-585-7841
Collages By: Susan L. Roth
About Susan L. Roth
Susan Roth Illustration
Susan likes to use Collage style pictures in her books, as seen here.
Who are the Children of Korphe?
This page describes who the children of Korphe are. They are independent people who grow and gather their own food and weave their own baskets.
Listen to the Wind
This image shows the children of Korphe learn in the school they built.
We Are The Children of Korphe.
Listen to the Wind: (General Information)
This is a story of Greg Mortenson's first building project in Pakistan. He helped a small village, Korphe, build a school house for the children who were using sticks to write in the sand. Through perseverance and dedication he succeeded in his goal.
Genre: Children's Literature
Awards:
- Consistent New York Times Best Seller
- sold over 1.2 million copies
- Time Magazine Asia Book of The Year
- Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association – Nonfiction Award
- Montana Honor Book Award
- Borders Bookstore Original Voices Selection
- Banff Mountain Festival Book Award Finalist
- 2007 Nonfiction Runner-Up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
- People Magazine – Critics Choice
- Publisher’s Weekly – Starred Review
- Mom's Choice Award 2009
- 2009 Italy: Premio Gambrinus “Giuseppe Mazzotti”
- Powell Book's Puddly Award (nonfiction)
- 2010 The Christopher Award
- 2010 The Mason Award
Digging Deeper
Three Reasons Why This Book is Culturally Relevant and Authentic
Characters as a whole in this book are definitely a realistic portrayal of the actual people that inhibit the small village of Korphe, Pakistan. In the book, they use a passage to describe their culture. The passage is as follows, "We are the children of Korphe. We live in a village in the mountains of Pakistan. Our families grow and gather the food we eat. Our mothers weave and sew the clothes we wear. We make up our games, and we make our own toys. (Mortenson, 2009, pg 4)" This passage portrays the inhabitants of Korphe as a very independent group of people. This is also known to be realistic in the real world. Korphe is a very small village in which they have to rely on themselves to survive.
2.) Names of characters should be culturally authentic and their personalities should reflect believable attributes.
This criteria is met when the book brings up the name of the local "wise man". It is known that in small villages, it is not uncommon for there to be "wise men", who are elderly, present in the villages. In the book the local "wise man" is Haji Ali. This name is consistent with the types of names you would find in Pakistan making this character realistic to the culture portrayed in the book.
3.) Setting should be representative of and consistent with historical or contemporary time, place, or situation of a particular culture.
This book relates to this criteria because Korphe, the village referred to in the book, is in fact a desolate village in Northern Pakistan. In the book it is referred to as a village where there is only one "Big" village that is close, Skardu. This matches the reality of the village in which is involved. Also, in the book it talks about how Korphe is located in the mountains. This is also true in which Korphe is located at the base of the Karakoram Mountain Range.
Classroom Teaching Application
Key Ideas and Details: RI.1.2
- Identify the main topic and retell key details of a text.
- Objective: The student will identify the main topic of the book and will discuss main characters through class discussion and a flow chart.
Using the Book: After reading this book I thought of many ideas in which I could incorporate this book into a classroom setting. Discussion could be a great way to talk about this book and bring up the key points in which the book has to offer. First, I would relate this book to the lives of the students by holding a discussion and making a chart on how their lives are different from the lives of the kids that live in Korphe. Making a Venn diagram would be a great way to allow the students to show the similarities and differences they have with the children of Korphe. Also being able to discuss the two different types of education that the students are facing and relating it to the culture of their people would be essential. I would ensure my students knew that with different cultures comes different behavior, routines, etc. Also allowing the students to identify the perseverance of the main character, Dr. Greg, had in creating this school for the children of Korphe would help them identify the main idea of the book. This discussion along with a story map of the book would increase the learning and also relate to the Literacy Standard RI.1.2. I would model the information that I wanted them to learn by showing them an example of the story map and also scaffolding during the discussion part of the lesson. I would also put the main ideas and topics I am trying to portray on the board before the lesson so they are aware of the direction of the lesson. By breaking the lesson up into parts, they can get the main ideas out of each section. I will have the students practice the main topics by participating in a class discussion of the book and what the culture difference is between them and the children of Korphe. I would then create a Venn Diagram of the similarities and differences of them and the children of Korphe using their thoughts and opinions. This will allow them to identify the main topic of the book and that is that there are different cultures throughout the world. And finally, they will each turn in a story map in which the can use words and/or draw the different parts of the story in the order in which they happened.
The Children of Korphe
The Children of Korphe pose for a picture.
Building!
Men of Korphe carrying lumber to build the new school.
Land Bridge
This was the land bridge that was made to carry the materials from one side of the canal to the other.