Meh. I'm sure I've seen this message handled with more grace & depth elsewhere. I only liked some of the pictures. ( )

This is a story of hope and the change that can occur from small things. One grain of sand falls to the ocean, deep, deep it travels. Landing inside the oyster, layer, upon layer covers the strand which then becomes a magnificent shining pearl worthy of great value.

This book reinforces the difference one item, or person can make, and one action can ripple throughout, gaining power and beauty.

The coupling of Napoli and LaMarche is excellent. Her writing and his illustrations together create a message well told and beautifully illustrated. ( )

I enjoyed this book for a few reasons. The first reason I liked this book is for the brightly colored and detailed illustrations. LaMarche gives objects that are moving a great sense of motion by incorporating different shading styles to represent the movement of the object. For example, on the first page there is a single grain of sand that is drifting past creatures in the ocean until it reaches the bottom. LaMarche gave this sand a sense of movement by shading a bright white trail behind it illustrating the path the sand came from before hitting the bottom. The next reason that I enjoyed reading this book is because Napoli gave life to a grain of sand, the sand spoke out about how it was feeling about the way it was being treated. Giving an inanimate object such as a grain of sand is bold and beautiful because sand is such an under appreciated element of Earth. The reader may be able to relate to this speck of sand if they feel lonely and unappreciated by the world. The main message of this story is that no matter your size or worth, to someone you are irreplaceable and worth more than the world. It will just take some time for one to realize this, but they will come to this realization in time. ( )

Charming but a bit too heavy-handed. ( )

In my opinion, the book "A Single Pearl," by Donna Jo Napoli is a great book for young readers. The first thing I liked about this book was the illustrations. Every page had no white space and included a detailed, bright colored illustration that matched the text on each page. This appeals to young readers and helps immerse them in the story. The plot was something that interested me as well, since the grain of sand was going through constant change. It started as a grain of sand, then a pearl, then it got harvested, then someone sold it, and it eventually ended up as a necklace on a princess. I also enjoyed that the story included the grain of sands point of view. At first, the grain of sand was very sad because he thought he was insignificant. It said, "The ocean bed is huge and important, in comparison, I don't matter at all. I am worthless." Since the grain of sand turned into a beautiful pearl, it teaches a great lesson that even though you may feel small, you can make a huge difference and be a very important part of someones life, in the pearls case, a Persian princess which the big idea of the story.