The One Thing You'd Save

This book is thought provoking and great to read with kids of all ages to hear what their perspective is and then be able to share a valuable life lesson.

I bought this book for my granddaughters, ages 9 and 12, and hoped it was not too young for them. I read it to them and we talked as we went, and we loved it. They talked about it to their parents and auntie and we still do now and then.Wonderful live lessons for all of us!

This is one of the most beautiful books I've have read in a long time. Cried about what one child said they would save. The illustrations are equally as impressive. This is a great book as story prompt. Our 5th grade loved it.

“If your home was on fire, what one thing would you save?” People and pets are safe, and it doesn’t matter the size of the item. This is the homework that Mrs. Chang gives her class. The answers she gets back are as varied as the diversity of the children in her class. The book is written in verse which is the perfect vehicle for each the students to express their thoughts. Being a Nana I particularly loved the responses that had items associated with family, the sweater that Gran had knitted, hair clippings from a dead brother, or the plant cutting from a grandmother’s philodendron.My 9-year-old grandson liked the book, but he found it a bit overwhelming. After each student’s response he would have to rethink his own answer. It took us two sittings to finish. I do agree with other reviewers that the author jumped around too much between students and their inner thoughts. “The One Thing You’d Save” gets a solid 4 from me.

Children are wired differently. Their brains don't confine their ideas like our adult brains do. For them, it's all outside the box, because to them, there is no box.That said, this children's narrative is a delight to my suffocating adult brain. Their ideas and values are so pure and genuine. It would take me forever to decide what to take, if I could only pull one valued thing out of a fire. To them the answers seem to come swiftly and easily. They trusted their guts, and they just knew.I envy them for this certainty, because they all chose so well.

This was categorized as a poetry book in my library and I don’t see how or why it was honestly. It was interesting being in a classroom where we were able to look into people’s inner thoughts and “real-life” conversations with theirs class. The switch between inner monologues of different students and conversations in the class was all over the place so I can see why some readers found this book confusing or jumbled. Truthfully, I don’t see this book being super memorable to me, which is why I chose a 3 star rating.

I love Linda Sue Park and her writing! She captures the best parts of friendship and what it's like to be a middle schooler in New York. In The One Thing You'd Save, Ms Chang asks her students what is the one thing that they would save if there was a fire in their home and family members and pets are safe. The different answers are natural, convincing, touching and in the form of a Korean style of poem.The choices, language and images take you to that age and the friendships between the students. It's a lovely book to read and share, particularly during this time of isolation and Covid.

Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park writes both poetry and prose with such heart and insight. In “The One Thing You’d Save,” Ms. Chang’s class shares the one must-have item that would join them as they flee from a house fire with their family and pets’ safety already assured. In the Korean sijo style of poetry, students explain their choices amid outstanding sketches created by artist Robert Sae-Heng. Readers will be led to think about what physical objects really matter to them and may find themselves trying to puzzle out student names and items selected! Librarians could easily shelve this book inthe fiction or poetry sections of their libraries and might want to consider having one copy for each, especially given the recent surge in popularity of novels in verse.