Richie’s Picks: JUST ONE GIFT
Richie Partington
Richie’s Picks: JUST ONE GIFT by Linda Sue Park and Robert Sae-Heng, ill., April 2026, 80p., ISBN: 978-0-06-332463-3
“If I had the world to give, I'd give it to you
Long as you live, would you let it fall, or hold it all in your arms?
If I had a song to sing, I'd sing it to you
as long as you live, lullaby or maybe a plain serenade
wouldn't you laugh, dance, and cry or be afraid at the change you made?”
– Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia (1978)
“Did you ever get a gift that you hadn’t asked for but was exactly what you wanted?”
I can answer that one in a heartbeat. For Christmas, sixty-one years ago (in the middle of fourth grade) my parents gave me a portable record player and copies of The Beatles’ Help! soundtrack album, along with The Beatles’ brand-new Rubber Soul album, which had been released just days prior.
(It was not long after that, that they fixed me a bedroom in the basement where I could begin the lifelong process of destroying my hearing with loud music.)
The students in Ms. Chang’s first-period Language Arts class have begun their Monday morning by drawing slips from a hat. Some slips say “Family;” some say “Friends;” and the remainder contain just a question mark. The students are prompted to compile a list of family members or friends in their lives, based on which slip they’ve drawn. The question mark slips denote the people who are in the student’s life, but who don’t fit into either the Family or Friends categories (and excluding Ms. Chang.) The students then receive a week-long assignment: Choose one person from their respective lists and…
“‘If you could give that person just one gift, what would it be? Something really special–chosen by you just for them.’”
The students are advised that the gift cannot be fantastical, and it cannot be money or a gift card. But it can be “unrealistic,” in that it can be something real that the student could not realistically afford to buy for their recipient.
And, because it is more of a challenge for the students who ended up with the question mark slips…
“To balance things out, there’s an added requirement for those of you giving to a family member or friend:
Your gift to them has to be something they’ve never asked for.”
To complete the assignment, students must discuss WHO they’ve chosen; WHY they’ve chosen that particular recipient; WHAT they’ve chosen to give that person; and WHY they’ve chosen that particular gift. The students have the option to either present their work orally in class or submit it privately, in their journals.
“May
Question Mark
‘There’s a little shop on the ground floor of my building. Mom sends me down there to get milk or bread or juice, whatever else we need.
Mr. and Mrs. Lee are the owners. When I was little and my mom had to go out for a while, she’d leave me with them. They never seemed to mind, and when I was in third grade, they started letting me count the cash in the till and put it in an envelope for Mr. Lee to take to the bank. They trusted me to do it right, even though I was just a kid.
The Lees live in a studio on the second floor. It’s tiny. And the store is open from six in the morning till midnight every single day of the week. THEY’RE NEVER NOT THERE.
So I’d give them a vacation. Even if they don’t leave town,
they could sleep in. Or, I don’t know, go for a walk somewhere.
Together, without one of them having to stay at the store.
I want to share something else, too. When I got Question Mark,
I was mad at first–I wanted Family or Friend.
I couldn’t decide who to give to, but finally
I picked the Lees because I realized that I’ve seen them
almost every day of my life. I can’t say the same
about anyone else in the world except my own family.
Then I started to think about the Lees–really think about them.
I knew all along that they never got a break from the store–
I knew it, but I hadn’t thought about it with my whole brain.
Like, how it must feel to never ever have a day off.
And the way they always helped out by looking after me,
but all that time, nobody was looking after them.
So now I’m wondering about a bunch of other people
who I know but haven’t thought about deep down enough.
in ways that might help me…um, RESPECT and AFFECT them more.’”
On one level, JUST ONE GIFT is a quick, easy, and enjoyable eighty-page read. The broad variety of student responses delivered at the end of the week are bound to inspire introspection, empathy (and possibly gratitude) amongst young readers. For teachers of tweens who can round up funding for a class set of this book, it will provide a ready-made assignment that–as is the case with May (above)–can hopefully lead students to think deep down about the people in their lives and inspire positive caring thoughts and actions, if only a “Thank you” at an appropriate point.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com