The Miraculous Tale of the Two Maries

The Miraculous Tale of the Two Maries

Written by: Rosemary Wells

Illustrated by: Petra Mathers

Viking, 2006

32 pages

Picture Book: Multicultural

      I chose this book because I love stories about the supernatural. This is a story about two French girls who died in a boating accident. They go to heaven and beg God to let them have one more chance at life. They come back to earth as angels and perform good deeds for the people of their town. They would fly through the sky in their boat and help wherever help was needed. 

Petra Mathers is the illustrator of this story. She used watercolors and pencils to create her illustrations for this book. French villages and landscapes are portrayed with soft colors and subtle lines. Mathers visited the South of France when writing this book. The reader gets a good perspective of France through eyes as an artist. I imagine that France looks just like her illustrations.

This book is appropriate for ages 5 and up. I would use this book in a 3^rd grade classroom. I don’t think I would use this book for any grade lower than third because it does talk about death. I might use this book to introduce a history lesson on France and its culture. I would read this book to my students and discuss the story and the pictures. We would also discuss some of the French language used in this book. I would also use this book for a science lesson about the ocean. The girls were killed by an incoming storm tide, and we would discuss tides and the ocean. I would also read this book to introduce a creative writing lesson. I would read this book to my students and then prompt them to write by saying, “Write about what you could do to help the people of your community.”