Miss Rumphius

Miss Rumphius

Written and Illustrated by Barbara Cooney

Published in 1982

Grade Level: 2nd-3rd grade

Synopsis: Winner of the American Book Award, Miss Rumphius is a story about Alice Rumphius, otherwise known as the Lupine Lady.  Alice used to sit on her grandfather's knee and listen to stories of far off places.  As a result, Alice wanted to travel the world.  She wanted to live by the sea, just as her grandfather had done.  One night her grandfather tells her that there is a third thing that she must do.  He tells her that she must make the world a more beautiful place.  Alice nods her head, but she did not know yet what that could be.  Alice grew up and moved to a city far from the sea.  She worked as a librarian and people called her Miss Rumphius.  She visits a tropical island and meets the Bapa Raja and his wife.  She climbed tall mountains, traveled across deserts, rode on a camel in Egypt, and then went to make her home near the sea.  Every morning she watched the sun rise and thought how beautiful it was.  How can I make the world a more beautiful place she kept thinking.  One day, an idea hit her, she would plant lupines all over the countryside.  Some people called her That Crazy Old Lady.  At the end of the story when Alice is a very old woman she tells her great niece that she too must make the world a more beautiful place. 

Theme/Skill: The obvious theme of Miss Rumphius is to do good deeds and leave the world a better place than it was when you came into it.  The character of Alice has such good intentions to make the world a better place that she should be used as an example of of generosity and philanthropy. 

Pre-reading activity: The teacher could create a poster or Power Point presentation with the faces of people living in our modern world who are known for their good deeds.  Faces that students may recognize are Oprah, Mother Teresa, Bill Gates, John Wood, Bill and Hilary Clinton, and Brad Pitt.  (The 25 Best Givers is an article that the teacher could pull information from.  It may have to be reworded or condensed in order for students to understand it.)  Students will see what these people have in common, which will then lead to the introduction of the term philanthropy.  Based on the discussion about The 25 Best Givers, the students will come up with synonyms for the new vocabulary term.  After students seem to have a grasp on the term, ask them to predict how they think philanthropy will play a part in Miss Rumphius. 

Post-reading activity: While reading the book pause and discuss with students how Miss Rumphius was working alone, but as a member of a community.  What community job did she hold? How did she help people? When she traveled, did she become part of other communities?  These types of questions will increase understanding.  Talk about what a community is and what kinds of communities are in their own lives.  For instance, students may be a part of several communities such as a school community, a neighborhood community, a church community, a national community, etc.  Now have students brainstorm ideas for making their own community a better place.  This will eventually be something that the teacher and students do together. 

Assessment: Students will be informally assessed on their ideas for making the world a better place.  Each student will write their idea on a piece of paper and submit it to the teacher before the discussion.  This is to ensure that students are thinking about the problem and working on developing a solution. 

Reflection: Yet again Barbara Cooney has written a wonderful story about nature and the goodness of people.  This was one of my favorite books as a child and it still is to this day.  My parents must have seen the positive qualities in Cooney's books because their are about a dozen books on our shelves with her name attached to it as either an author, an illustrator, or both.  The story is one that a parent can enjoy reading with their child or a teacher with their students.  The book lends itself nicely to a variety of teaching ideas, but more importantly its message may inspire young readers to somehow make the world a better place.

Lupines like the ones planted by Miss Rumphius