The Pottery Place by Gail Gibbons

the pottery place by gail gibbons
The Pottery Place by Gail Gibbons

today’s children storybook summary is

The Pottery Place

By Gail Gibbons

Storyline: Written when pottery wasn’t such an exotic occupation as it seems today, this book tells us all there is about this craft. Of course, it was designed for children but even adults could learn about the daily life of a potter.

The potter in this book is a woman who seems that she had been doing this for her entire life. Everything in her workshop is nicely organized and her craft fallows a rhythm that has been long practiced and perfected.

At first hours of the morning she gets her dry clay delivery. Then she mixes the clay using a different recipe for each kind of pottery she makes: mugs, pots or other creations. In making the pottery that day she uses a one-year-old clay. We are shown and told how the she takes a lump of clay, gives it a form and finishes it on the potter’s wheel. Then the pots are cooked in a kiln, very slowly; then they are decorated and glazed and cooked again. When is all done, the potter packs her pots and mugs and delivers them to her customers: a pot to a neighbor and mugs for a gift store.

The potter is not alone. She is working while her cat watches her. Also, a boy stops by to keep the potter company and maybe learn the craft.

In telling this simple story, the author doubles up the information and thus we not only find out what it takes to be a potter and what are different things a potter may do daily, but we learn the name of the different tools and equipment used in the process.

Characters: the potter, a woman dressed in jeans and a blue shirt, wearing a red and white polka dot scarf on her head, a boy with red hair dressed in overalls, a grey cat.

Illustration: Though simplistic and illustrative, the art work in this book manages to tell the same story as the words bellow. There are a lot of straight lines through the paintings and the colors are bright. On some pages, the depictions of the tools are accompanied by their written name, to be, maybe, more explanatory.

Recommended Age: 5 to 8

Reading Time: 10”

 

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