Sense Pass King by Katrin Tchana

Posted on February 9, 2006

Last Thursday, I spend the day at the Swanton Elementary School visiting seven 3rd and 4th grade classrooms to share a lesson on respect. I shared with the students the book of respect letters written by the kindergarten through second grade students at Babcock School and we talked a little about why treating each other with respect is so important. I then shared with the students a favorite book of mine, Sense Pass King retold by Katrin Tchana and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman.

I have a couple of connections with this book that I also shared with the children. First, this book is a story from Cameroon, a country in West Africa. My wife and I are avid fans of UVM basketball and a young man that played for UVM for the past 4 years was Germain Njila. He is from Cameroon. He is also a respectful, kind and gentle person that I respect very much. A second connection is that the author, Katrin Tchana now lives in Thetford, Vermont with her husband, Eugene (who was born in Cameroon) and their two children.

The story is about a young girl, Ma'antha, who is extraordinary. She was so clever that the villagers began calling her Sense Pass King which means "smarter than the king". This angered the king who tried his best to rid himself of Ma'antha. As the story progresses, she remains kind and respectful while we learn that the king is not! There are several points in the story where it is fun to stop and ask the students to predict what will happen next. There are lots of examples of Sense Pass King acting respectfully while the king disrespects everyone.

If you haven't read this book, read it. The students loved it and so do I.