In this twist on Aesop, the fox progressively involves a series of animals in an elaborate plan to help him get the grapes. He refuses to listen to their advice, and when his plan fails, he leaves saying the grapes are probably not ripe. After he leaves, the other animals get the grapes.

Margie Palatini, Simon and Schuster, ©2009, ISBN 978-0-689-80246-1

The Power of Repetition

This book presents an opportunity for students to understand the power of a repeated line; in this case, “After all, I’m the fox. Sly. Clever. Smart.” Also repeated are: “Voila! Grapes!” and “If you say so.”

As a listening skill, ask each 1/3 of the class to listen for their particular phrase and note the total number of times it occurs, as well as when each of them happens.

Ask them to write a story, or re-write an existing one, to add humorous repeated phrases.

A Rube Goldberg Plan

Our fox makes somewhat of a “Rube Goldberg” plan, each part of which is more elaborate than next, and requiring ever more complicated diagrams. The original model of a plan that is too elaborate is named after Rube Goldberg. The illustration is of a machine to brush your teeth. Ask students to create a “Rube Goldberg” plan to do something simple like wash a car, or sharpen a pencil.

Rube Goldberg was a cartoonist who was most famous for creating cartoons to solve simple problems in an elaborate way. The board game, Mouse Trap, is based on a Rube Goldberg machine. Today, there are Rube Goldberg contests for inventors to create overly elaborate solutions to problems. You can view some of these machines on YouTube, my particular favourite is OK Go’s music video for “This Too Shall Pass” because there is music cleverly included.

For 9 creative writing ideas, click Lousy Rotten Stinkin’ Grapes to download.