Christmas In Water Village

 Christmas in Water Village

Written by Christine Maxfield

Illustrated by Jean Colquhoun

Published in 1989

Grade Level: 3rd grade 

Synopsis: Christmas in Water Village is a wonderfully illustrated book narrated by Patience Jewell.  Patience lives in a quaint town in Northern New England called Water Village.  It is the early part of the 1800s and she lives with her parents and younger brother named Joshua.  The reader is under the impression that Patience is telling the story as a grown woman who is reflecting on a particular time from her childhood.  It is Christmastime (her favorite time of the year) when a new girl, Hannah, enters the one room schoolhouse in Water Village.  The children are curious about Hannah, but have a hard time befriending her because "she would only look down at her feet, her honey colored hair falling over her face."  The festivities of the holiday season soon distract the other children who soon forget about the new girl.  Patience and Joshua's mother tells them that Hannah is so sad because her father, Captain Fisher, has been lost at sea for months.  Patience and Joshua soon befriend Hannah.  One night, Patience wishes on a star that Captain Fisher will return home to her friend and he does.  At the end of the story, Hannah and Patience are both old women and still the best of friends. 

Theme/Skill:This would be a great text to use to teach children about friendship; how to be a good friend and why people need friendship.  Students should be able to identify what made Patience and Joshua good friends to Hannah as well as what makes their own friends good companions.

Pre-reading activities: Christine Maxfield wrote Christmas in Water Village in the twentieth century, yet it takes place during the 1820s, nearly two hundred years ago.  Teach students about the time period.  Let them see how people dressed, how they lived, jobs they had, and how school/education was set up.  Bring in props that students can touch and handle while you talk about them.  Show students where Water Village is on a map.  Show them pictures of how the town looks today.  This will provide a visual reference in students' minds.  Make compare and contrast charts such as Venn Diagrams that act as a visual aid for students to see the similarities and differences between the culture apparent in the book and how things are now (talk about the difference in jobs, homes, school).

Post-reading activities: Students should know what details and descriptions are necessary for good writing.  The teacher should choose a character from another book that all students are familiar with.  The teacher will model how to create a character outline using some sort of graphic organizer.  Students will help the teacher choose details about that character; what they look like, how they act, hobbies, friends/family, characteristics, personality.  After this activity, students will choose any two characters from the book and complete a character chart for each.  

Assessment: Character maps will not be formally assessed student answers because answers will vary, yet students should have the general idea.  What will be assessed is how well they were able to identify details about characters.  The goals is for students to be able to pick out detail choose descriptive words to describe a character because they are going to to have to create three characters of their own in order to write their own Christmastime story. 

Reflection: Even though the book is called Christmas in Water Village it is not primarily about the Christian holiday.  It is about caring, friendship, understanding, and compassion; all of which are positive traits for young children to learn.  If a teacher wants to use this book then perhaps they should emphasize it as a book about friendship rather than holiday reference.  Some parents may oppose the book, but a teacher could defend it by emphasizing its other positive qualities.  People like books for many different reasons.  I, for instance, initially was drawn to this book because one of the character's shared her name with me.  For a child/student, something as simple as that can draw their attention.  As an adult/teacher, it is our job to teach students the deeper elements of a story so that they can understand it in terms of how it connects to their own lives.