Homeschool Reading · Literature

The Story About Ping

by Marjorie Flack & Kurt Wiese · a homeschool reading guide

Best for

Grades 1–2 (read-aloud from preschool)

Reading level

420L Lexile® measure

Subject

Literature (picture book · classic)

On Chalky

2 modules with personalized comprehension questions

Use this book for

• Literature (core): A real journey story — home left, trouble met, home regained — with a hero who makes one bad decision and lives with it. Plot cause-and-effect at picture-book size.
• Reading skills (core): Early comprehension with something to chew on: why Ping hides, what the spank at the gangplank means, and whether coming home was worth it.
• History & geography (tie-in): The Yangtze River, houseboats, and cormorant fishing — find the river on a map and the book becomes a first geography lesson that costs nothing extra.
• Character & discussion (tie-in): Ping ducks a small consequence and earns a night of big ones. Whether avoiding trouble makes more trouble is a question a six-year-old can argue well.

The book

Ping the duck lives on a boat on the Yangtze with his enormous family, and the last duck up the gangplank each night gets a spank — so one evening, rather than be last, Ping doesn't go home at all.

Published in 1933 with Kurt Wiese's warm yellow-and-blue paintings, The Story About Ping has stayed in print for ninety years because it does two things at once: it tells a tight, satisfying runaway-and-return story, and it opens a window onto river life in China that most young readers have never seen. The consequence at the middle of the book — Ping nearly ends up someone's dinner — is real enough to matter and gentle enough for five.

Why homeschoolers reach for it

• A plot that actually turns. Most picture books at this level are episodes; Ping is a story. One choice, a chain of consequences, and a return that means something — the shape every later novel study depends on.
• Geography riding along free. A river, a boat, a fishing bird with a ring round its neck. Keep a map open and the book quietly starts your child's picture of the wider world — the living-book habit, begun early.
• A conversation about consequences. The spank Ping dodges is small; the night alone is not. Children see the trade instantly, and defending Ping's choice — or not — is early reasoning from evidence.
• Read-aloud rhythm. Flack wrote it to be heard: 'the wise-eyed boat on the Yangtze river' rolls off the tongue, and the repeated counting of Ping's family invites a child to join in.

Reading skills it builds

On Chalky, every module ends with comprehension questions written from the book's own text, each exercising a specific skill aligned to the Common Core reading standards for grade 1.

• Evidence-based analysis (CCSS RL.1.1): How do we know Ping is afraid of being last? Find the line
• Theme & objective summary (CCSS RL.1.2): What the night away teaches Ping — said in the child's words
• Narrative element analysis (CCSS RL.1.3): One duck, one missed boat, and everything that follows
• Vocabulary & word impact (CCSS RL.1.4): 'Gangplank', 'cormorant' — river words met on the river
• Text structure & development (CCSS RL.1.5): Leaving and returning — how the ending answers the beginning
• Point of view & perspective (CCSS RL.1.6): The boy who catches Ping sees dinner; Ping sees danger

If your state asks you to document reading instruction, this is the record: which book, which skills, which standard each aligns with, kept automatically as your child reads.

Running it as a unit

On Chalky, The Story About Ping runs two modules — a few days at 15 minutes a day, open-and-go: the questions are already written, so there is nothing to prepare. It slots naturally beside the grade 1 reading plan. A rhythm, not a rulebook:

1. Day 1 — read and find the river. Read the first module, then find the Yangtze on a map or globe. Ask for the story so far in your child's own words: who is Ping, and why didn't he go home?
2. Days 2–3 — finish and retell. Second module, then the whole story back, in order. The chain matters: hid, missed the boat, drifted, caught, freed, home. If the retelling holds the chain, comprehension is doing its job.
3. Close — the question. 'Was the spank worth going home to?' Ping decides it was. Whether your child agrees is a real conversation, and it is yours; Chalky's questions will have covered the rest.

Pairs well with

• The Little Red Hen — 200L · work, consequences, and bread
• Frog and Toad Are Friends — 300L · the read-alone step alongside
• Henry and Mudge: The First Book — 450L · a first chapter book after Ping

Start your reading comprehension curriculum on Chalky

Standards references describe alignment with the Common Core State Standards for Reading, grade 1; homeschool requirements vary by state, and this page is a record of instruction, not legal advice.