Knots on A Counting Rope-Multicultural and International Literature

            Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault is such a great inspirational book for many.  After reading this book it made me want to dig deeper into my upraising and hear more tales about my past, like in the book.  Knots on a Counting Rope is about a young boy who loves hearing his grandfathers tales about his own birth and family rising.  As his grandfather is telling the story it takes the reader through the world of a Native American.  It shows the young boys life from his birth on a stormy night to him growing up and becoming a well-known tribe member.   In this book one can see the challenges this boy must face throughout his childhood, the biggest one being the fact that he is blind.  The young boy who is given the name Boy-Strength-Of-Blue-Horses on the day of his birth is such a great leader for many.  In the book the young boy doesn’t let his disability keep him from doing the things he loves.  In the book it shows the boy learning to use his other senses to help him get through each day and to help him when he participates in the horse races which is a tradition of his village.  Boy-Strength of Blue-Horses grandfather always told him that he would learn to see one day and at the end of the book we are able to see that that day has finally come!  I think teachers could use this book for many great lessons.  As a future teacher I would use this book to talk about traditions of Native Americans such as horse racing, story telling, etc.  Along with this I think it would be good to have students create some kind of way to express their own traditions that they have within their family.  Students could create a book, or a play, draw a picture, etc.  There are many ways that students could show the class about their customs and traditions.  Also to tie in the fact that the boy was blind and living with a disability I would talk about other disabilities that students might have and have the students generate ideas on how we as citizens can help people with disabilities around the community.  Also, I remember when I was in school we did an exercise where we go in pairs and one person was blind folded while the other person guided them around the school.  This activity was designed to allow students to get a glimpse of what it might be like to be blind and to help students learn to use other senses that they might not realize they use everyday.