The importance of Sharing (review)

Lorena Birra

The Doorbell Rang is a children’s story written by Pat Hutchins. The moral purpose of this story is to teach children the importance of sharing with others. The story also has a didactic value since it helps children to learn how to count and divide things, so it may be a useful tool for English ´s teachers, who are teaching numbers in fourth grade. Another important thing is that it has big illustrations that help small children to understand the story and the message beyond.

The characters of this story are a mother, her children, children´s friends and the grandmother of the children. While the mother is cleaning the kitchen’s floor, her children wait to eat the delicious cookies she has prepared for them. Children compare the cookies with the ones that grandma always makes:

“No one makes cookies like Grandma” said Ma as the doorbell rang.

Eventually, some friends come into the house and the mother invites them to stay and share the cookies. The most important thing is that we, as readers, can understand the message of the author, that the only thing that matters is sharing what we have with the rest.

However, the author stereotypes the character of the mother and her role in the family. On the other hand children should ask where the father is and if they have, because the whole story talks about the role of the mother, the father is not mention. 

I recommend the story because it has a moral purpose and it is appealing for children since the author uses clear and big illustrations that help little children to understand it and catch its message.