Story Review of Pushing Up the Sky

Character: Snohomish People

Setting: The northwest of Washinton

Genre: Play

Plot: Long ago, the sky was too close to earth

Pushing Up the Sky is written by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Stefano Vitale. Its genre is play.  The story talks about the sky being too low and people always bumping their heads or getting things lost in the sky.  So people called all the animals and birds, and selected the correct tools and plans to push the sky up. Finally, the sky was up, and the holes poked into the sky turned into stars. They were successful.

Firstly, I learned that we should help each other to solve the problems together in society. Everyone has her/his advantages and disadvantages, so if we do things together, we can complement. In the story, the chief calls all the animals and birds to help with all of their efforts, and they finally succeed. I think this is right because then they help each other, they both get benefits and it is worth of it. Helping each other is important because it can do things we can’t do ourselves.

Secondly, I learned that we need to select the correct tools to do something good if we want to be successful. The correct tools can help us to make a successful rate higher. In the story, the  Snohomish people cut down tall trees to make poles for pushing up the sky because tall trees can make longer poles and all of the people or animals can push the sky no matter whether they are tall or short. Chinese has an old proverb that we must sharpen our tools to attack well. So we need to prepare our tools before doing anything.

 Last but not least, I learned that we should accept the other's plan or opinion to solve the problems. Because our plan sometimes can’t succeed, so we need to use a new plan or way. In the story, the Seventh Chief’s plan was lost, so they used the Fifth Chief’s plan to add a signal to push up at the same time and it succeeded. The solution is always more than the problem. Sometimes, our plan is lost, and we need to use another's plan.

I learned three things from this story. To solve the problem, we should help each other, select the correct tools, and accept the other's perfect plan or opinion. These are important for success. And I also learned about the expression of play and the Snohomish People’s culture. It expands my knowledge about other ethnic groups. This book is very interesting,  I think maybe you will like it too.