Comparison

The Wolf Who Cried Boy

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

wolf who cried boyLittle Wolf never likes what is made for dinner:  Lamburgers, Sloppy Does, Chocolate Moose—nothing pleases him.  All he can think about is “boy”—boy chops, baked boy-tatoes and boys -n-berry pie. On the way home to three pig salad, Little Wolf has the idea of pretending to see a boy. After this trick results in him getting junk food for several nights, his father overhears him bragging to a friend. They refuse to listen to him…even though he has seen an entire troop of boy scouts in the woods, and one even enters the cave. Lesson learned, and the boys, at least, live happily ever after.

Bob Hartman, GP Putnam, 2002, ISBN 0-399-23578-7.

Wolf Variations

Students should be able to draw the comparisons between this story and the original Boy Who Cried Wolf. If you read them the original story and then this one, they should be able to construct a VENN diagram to compare and contrast the two stories (see the blackline master).

Then you could ask them to brainstorm other stories into which a wolf variation could be included: Chicken Wolf (from Chicken Little), Little Red Wolf (from the Little Red Hen), Wolf and the Beanstalk (from Jack and the Beanstalk – although it will be hard for a wolf to climb), etc. They could then try to write a new a clever version of the story with the wolf as a main character.

Fairy Tales and Fables With Wolves

Many fairy tales, particularly “northern” tales feature wolves…possibly because they were a real danger in the time of the stories. Many of Aesop’s fables also feature wolves, which makes one think that perhaps this is one of the dangers in Greece at the time of Aesop as well.

A list of tales you may wish your students to read and discuss includes:

  1. Little Red Riding Hood (Grimm fairy tale)
  2. The Three Little Pigs (Grimm fairy tale)
  3. The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids (Grimm fairy tale)
  4. The Dog and the Wolf (Aesop)
  5. The Wolf and the Lamb (Aesop)
  6. The Wolf and the Crane (Aesop)

 

For 5 creative writing ideas, click The Wolf Who Cried Boy to download.

An Undone Fairy Tale

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

An undone fairy taleOur illustrator is racing through the book trying to tell the story of a pie-loving king who has imprisoned his stepdaughter.  He will only release her when a suitor kills the dragon.  We, “the readers”, are  reading too fast for the illustrator to keep up.  This results in emergency art substations that detour our plot.

Ian Lendler, Simon and Schuster, ©2005, 0-689-86677-1

Writing to the Model
Students could imitate the model of this book. In this story, as it proceeds, the reader catches up to the illustrator who has to compromise and thus affects the story. The author increasingly frantically begs the reader to slow down, to no avail. The separation between what the author is writing and what the author is saying is made by a change of font. When the students are writing, it could be accomplished by highlighting what the author says to the reader in yellow – which can easily be read through, but shows that the author is speaking in his/her “real” voice. The student plot cannot depend on illustrations, but rather on interruptions due to “fast reading.”

A good idea is to start by brainstorming the kinds of problems an author/illustrator could have in writing;

  • running out of ink.
  • can’t write as fast as you can read.
  • including conversation really slows down the writing.
  • writer’s block.
  • writer’s cramp, etc.

The next step is for students to outline the real story they want to tell, because they will be interrupting themselves and will want to remember where they are going. The final step is to start to write. The teaching ideas PDF contains a sample for students of the beginnings of a story.

Journal Ideas
It’s always valuable to use a picture book as a prompt to journal writing. Try to have at least three choices so that students can select the one about which they think they can write the most, or if they run out of steam, can write on a second topic as well. Some possibilities are:

  • times you have been interrupted when you are trying to do something.
  • speaking to a group.
  • a time when a project did not go well.

For 4 creative writing ideas, click  An Undone Fairy Tale to download.

The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

FabulousFlyingMachines_JKTThe author’s child learns in school that the Wright Brothers invented flight.  Her Brazilian husband says, “No they didn’t.  It was Alberto Santos-Dumont”.

Santos-Dumont was a wealthy Brazilian living in Paris who created the first practical dirigible and in the book uses it to go to a store, drop anchor, and go in to shop for a hat.  He then creates the first plane to fly with some controls and under its own power, as opposed to needing assistance to get into the air. Amazingly, he was also the first man to wear a wristwatch.  Clocks wouldn’t work on an airplane, so his friend, Piaget, created a small watch you could wear on your wrist.

Victoria Griffith, Abrams Books for Young Readers, ©2011, 978-1-4197-0011-8

Contrasting Two Things

The story opens with the author recounting how her child had learned in school that the Wright Brothers had invented flight, only to have her Brazilian husband point out that it was a Brazilian who flew first, and in Paris at that.

Students could read about the Wright Brothers and contrast the two.
The Wright Brothers:

  • Flew in 1903 with few witnesses vs. Santos-Dumont flying in 1905 with a thousand witnesses
  • Needed assistance—high winds and a rail system to get up speed—to get into the air vs. Santos-Dumont taking to the air under its own power.
  • Were not wealthy vs. Santos-Dumont who was wealthy
  • Had little control of the flight vs. Santos-Dumont with controls
  • Were up for 12 seconds vs. Santos-Dumont for 20 seconds
  • Had one first in their life vs. Santos-Dumont having the first practical dirigible, first unassisted flight, first mass-produced airplane (the Dragonfly), and the first person to wear a wristwatch (invented just for him).

Then ask students why they think the Wright Brothers are famous and everyone, except Brazil, has forgotten Alberto Santos-Dumont.

Teaching the Word “Irony”

Irony means to use words, and sometimes tone, to convey the opposite of what the words seem to say. For example, it is ironic to survive the San Francisco earthquake only to die in the Jamaica earthquake. It is ironic to put a “do not deface the stop sign” on the actual stop sign. In the case of this book there are two ironic statements:

  • Santos-Dumont says that airplanes will bring about peace because we will see how similar all people really are.
  • Spectators say “nobody will forget this day” when they see Santos fly.

Discuss with students the irony of these statements.

For 7 creative writing ideas, click The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont to download.

Chloe and the Lion

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

ChloeandtheLionThe author begins by presenting us with his character, Chloe, and asks the illustrator to menace her with a lion. The illustrator thinks it should be a dragon, which starts the quarrel. The illustrator torments the author sufficiently that the author fires him, and, in fact the lion the second illustrator creates eats him. Unfortunately, the second illustrator is really bad and finally Chloe and the author agree that they need to apologize to our first illustrator. They phone him, inside the lion’s stomach, and eventually he, the author, and Chloe become reunited.

Mac Barnett, Disney Hyperion Press, ©2012, 978-14231-1334-8

The Trailer

There is a great trailer that goes with the book, consisting of the further argument of the author and illustrator. I can’t decide which to do first with the students—they’re both so great. I particularly love the part where the illustrator is saying, “What is a book without the illustrator—a haiku. I’ve seen more writing on a t-shirt. That’s why they call it a ‘picture book’.”

Duck Amuck

This may not be the most academic activity but there is also a YouTube of the Looney Toons cartoon, Duck Amuck in which the character Daffy Duck attempts to play a part in the cartoon only to be erased, put in the wrong scene, coloured, blown up, etc. by the artist—who turns out to be Donald Duck. Discuss similarities and differences with the students.

For 11 creative writing ideas, click Chloe and the Lion to download.

Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

rumpelstiltskinThis fractured fairy tale begins after “Meredith” marries Rumpelstiltskin instead of the king and they have a daughter, Hope. Occasionally Rumpelstiltskin spins some gold and Hope takes it to the village. On hearing of it, the king captures her and demands she spin gold. She says she is not sure, but believes her grandfather did it with wheat. So it is planted across the kingdom. The peasants are happy, but the king still wants gold. Next, they try gold wool—again, the peasants are happy, but the king wants gold. Eventually, Hope becomes Prime Minister and, whenever the king becomes anxious, she takes him on a goodwill tour of his now happy kingdom.

Diane Stanley, ©1997, Harper Collins, ISBN 0-688-14327 – X

Parodies of Art

On the wall in the king’s castle are several clever parodies of some famous paintings. Since awareness of famous art and artists is part of the art curriculum, a study of the 8 pictures that are easily identified could be fun. Give each group of students a photocopy of one of the parodies from the book. Then give them a photocopy of the original piece of art, its name, and artist.

Ask students to prepare a one page “poster” on their picture. The poster would include both illustrations along with several paragraphs on the artist’s life, and a paragraph on the piece of art. Why was it created, when, for whom, where it is now, what is it a picture of, etc.?

Explain that an art reference “joke” like this is a literary reference—it is hard to get the joke without background knowledge. You can even talk about how there are a lot of “in jokes” that young people would not get in a movie like Shrek, but that adolescents and adults have background knowledge to catch the reference.

The pictures in the book are:

  • Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci
  • Birth if Venus, Botticelli
  • Laughing Cavalier, Frans Hals
  • Starry Night, Vincent Van Gogh
  • Seated Woman with a Wrist Watch, Pablo Picasso
  • George Washington, John Trumbell
  • Whistler’s Mother, James McNeil Whistler
  • Frederico de Montefeltro, Piero della Francesca

Compare the Tales

Working in pairs, ask students to generate the longest possible list of the characteristics the three stories they have in common—the original Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale, the version where Meredith marries Rumpelstiltskin instead of the ing, and the story of her daughter Hope. They should find at least the following qualities:

  • Rumpelstiltskin
  • Meredith
  • The King
  • The request to spin gold
  • The threat of death
  • The promise of marriage
  • Three tries
  • The palace

Students can also be asked to write their comparison when they have completed their list.

For 6 creative writing ideas, click Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter to download.

Hello Muddah Hello Faddah!

/ diana cruchley / Leave a comment

Sherman HelloMuddahThe hit parade novelty song by Allan Sherman made into a children’s book. The book tells, in song, the tale of the letter from camp, and asking his parents to please bring him home immediately. It ends with the sun breaking out and him asking his parents to “kindly disregard this letter.”

Allan Sherman and Lou Busch, Dutton Children’s Books, ©2004, ISBN 0-525-46942

Writing the Complaining Letter

Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah! can be used to introduce the writing of the friendly letter. In this case, the author is a boy at campy who wants to be brought hom immediately and gives many reasons why his parents should not leave him there, before discovering that he really likes it. This is a picture book version of Allan Sherman’s famous song of the same name. Students could practice writing letters in a similar voice imagining they have moved to a different neighbourhood, joined a different baseball team, gone to a new school…any experience could precipitate the letter.

Comparing Hello Muddah! Hello Faddah! to Dear Mrs. LaRue

In Dear Mrs. LaRue, the dog, Ike, has been sent to Obedience School. Each day he describes the problems with the school and asks to come home. Using a Venn Diagram, students could compare the two books, and then, perhaps use that draft material to write a comparison of their own.

For 4 writing ideas, click Hello Muddah! Hellow Faddah! to download.