The Same Stick
The idea: one shared length, copied for everyone, lets people who work apart make things that fit.
Read it
One story, three ways: Sprout for a new reader, Grower in short chapters, Reader as a full chapter book. Same plot, same ending.
Who is in this book
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Lan a child of the Green Goes first; makes a friend in a minute -
Inkling a child of the Green Names what she notices
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts are true, stretched or made up — and what does nobody know?
True
- About four thousand five hundred years ago, cities of the Indus Valley (now Pakistan and north-west India), such as Mohenjo-daro, had straight streets with covered brick drains running along them. Source
- Indus builders made their bricks the same shape in many different cities: four long, two wide and one high. Source
- Indus cities were careful about their weights and measures, which stayed remarkably the same from place to place. A ruler made of ivory, marked in very small equal parts, was found at Lothal. Source
- A stick fifty fingers long and a stick forty-six fingers long differ by four fingers, so ten of each differ by forty fingers.
Stretched
- In the story, a boy makes two teams use one stick, copied from the first, the day before their drain meets. What we simplified: Nobody knows how the Indus people agreed their measures, or who decided them. The story shows one simple way a shared length can spread: by making each copy against the one before.
Made up
- Lan and Inkling, the spark, the buzzing word, the boy, the two building teams and their sticks are made up.
Nobody knows
- Nobody knows who first decided the lengths and weights that Indus builders used, or what they called them. They had a writing system, but nobody has yet been able to read it. Source
Tell it back
Tell the story in your own words: who was there, what went wrong, and what they found out. Then the letter E, the last of the third word; the anvil reads DOOR OPEN WIDE goes on your belt.
On your belt: the letter E, the last of the third word; the anvil reads DOOR OPEN WIDE.
Your belt lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.