The 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.
The 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.
This is the story of Mark Twain’s life in picture book form, with accompanying anecdotes from Susy who is writing this memoir so we can meet the “real” Mark Twain. Susy, Mark Twain’s favourite daughter, did keep a memoir of observations of her dad for a short period of time, and excerpts from it are included as little fold out pages. She talks about their home, his writing process and the role her mom plays, his leisure activities, and much more.
James advises his younger brother on the 10 things you must not do if you ride the school bus. They range from not sitting at the front, not sitting at the back, not making eye contact with the bully, to not touching the bully’s stuff, not sitting with a girl, and finally to not talking to the bus driver. During the course of the day, his brother inadvertently breaks all 10. But he discovers that things work out and makes a rule 11—you don’t have to pay attention to the rules.
Bridget’s loves to draw and is inspired by her beret. Unfortunately one day the beret blows away, and Bridget resorts to many other types of hats. None of them is inspiring. She is suffering from “painters block” until one day her friends who are opening a lemonade stand need a sign.. Bridget makes a series of signs (in the style of Whistler’s Mother, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Andy Warhol’s Tomato Soup etc.). Her signs are viewed as an outdoor exhibit as passers by purchase lemonade at the “refreshment stand.” Of course, it ends with Bridget re-inspired to paint. This book also includes 2 pages of How to Start Your Art.
At the Paw and Claw restaurant it is lunch and Mr. Maxwell wants to celebrate his promotion with something special. He orders the headwaiter, Clyde to bring him a live mouse instead. When Clyde asks “Would you like us to kill it for you?” Mr. Maxwell replies, “That won’t be necessary.”
This 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.
Ralph Raccoon is too polite and too nice. His parents have to send him to Bandit School to learn to be a proper bad raccoon. How does Ralph use his “niceness” to succeed?
The Being Bad Alphabet
The pea under the mattress writes a memoir of his attempt to help the prince find a “real princess.” Eventually the gardener’s girl who raised the pea lies on the twenty mattresses and he whispers, “You are very uncomfortable,” in her ear all night. She repeats this to the queen in the morning and marries the prince. The pea lives on in the royal museum.
Henrietta, the chicken, loves to read and decides to write a book for herself. Having trouble getting it published, she self-publishes, but is sad after a bad review in the “Corn Book”. She is depressed until she discovers that children love her book.
Diana Cruchley 