Curriculum Connections
On Sand Island

by Jacqueline Briggs Martin

In On Sand Island bartering for goods and services were a major part of the story as Carl sought the materials to make his boat. Introduce the origin of monetary system by reading the following sstories.  Discuss the plot in terms of the system of barter that takes place.  After a discussion of the bartering system, it is just a small step to to discuss the evolution from bartering to exchanging goods and services for money — the evolution of our monetary system.  

1. Self - Sufficient —Read Tomie dePaola's "Charlie Needs a Cloak" (Simon, 1973, 1988).  Charlie shears the wool of his sheep, cards, washess, and spins it into thread.  He dyes the thread and weaves the read and weaves the thread into cloth.  Using the cloth, he cuts and sews his own cloak.
   
   
2. Self - Sufficient — A similar tale is told in The Goat in teh Rug by Geraldine by Charles L. Blood and Martin Link (Fourt Winds, 1976; Aladdin 1990).  A Navajo woman shears her goat, washes and cards the wool and so forth.  She searches the countryside for plants that will yield the colored elements to dye the thread.  However, the goat eats the plants, so the woman must purcahse the dyes.  For the most part, though, this story is one of self-sufficiency.  She does have to rely on ohtres for the dyes.  This story moves us one step closer to bartering/purchasing the goods and services of others.
   
   
3. Bartering services for services — Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow (Platt & Munk, 1929; Harper, 1060) tells of Pelle who needs a new suit and exchanges hisservices for the items or services that he needs.  For example, he weeds his grandmother's garden in exchange for her weaving the cloth.  Pelle is not able to produce all of these things for himself, he trades his own services for what he needs.
   
   
4. Bartering Goods for Services — In A New Coat for Anna by Harriet Ziefert (Knopf, 1986) Anna's mother attempts to obtain a new coat for Anna, but she has little, if any money. Even if Annaa's mother haadthe money, the goods are not available in the stores.  She gives the farmer an item in exchange for his sheep's wool.  Similar tradess of goods for services are made throughout the process of spinning the  thread, weaving the cloth, and tailoring the cloth into a coat.  At the end of the  story, there is a gathering of all those who contributed to the coat.  Each is wearing the item Anna's mother traded.  If Anna's mother had sold her brooch or necklace, she could have used her money to purchase the goods and services that she needed.  Instead, she bartered.
   
   
5. Read On Sand Island and discuss what Carl does -- be self-sufficient, barter goods for services, or barter services for services (or a combination of those behaviors).  Discuss how our monetary system came about.