Author: Teresa Batemen
Title: Harp O’Gold
Illustrator: Jill Weber
Genre: Fantasy
Subgenre: Picture Book
Theme: Be careful what you wish for because you might just get it, and it might not be what you expected.
Primary/Secondary Characters: Tom, Sean O’Dell, and the King
Award(s)/Publication Year: no awards presented/2001
Publishing Company: Holiday House
Brief Summary/Book Usage: This book is about Tom, a poor musician that dreams of becoming rich, having nice silk clothes and a white horse. He has an old broken down harp and wears worn old clothes with holes in them but everyone he knows enjoys hearing him play. Although this brought happiness to Tom he wanted more, he wanted to be asked to play for the rich and one day Sean O’Dell granted him that wish, he told Tom he would give him a brand new harp made of gold in exchange for his old harp, Tom jumped at this offer. Within the next couple of days Tom had exactly what he wanted his old clothes were thrown into the bottom of his bag and he was now playing for all of the wealthy folks around. One day Tom was called to the palace, the King had heard about all his wonderful music and wanted to keep Tom in his procession to play whenever he wanted him. Although Tom had everything he ever wanted he was unhappy. He now had no freedom, he was to only play what the King wanted to hear so one day he took out his old clothes put the harp in his bag and fled the palace. When Tom was back to town he went back to the same spot Sean granted his wish and made another wish to have his old harp back and it was done, Tom was back to his happy self once more and realized that nice things do not make you even happier then you already were. I would use this book in my classroom by telling the children to be thankful for what they have and that the grass is not always greener on the other side although it may look appealing.
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