Lesson Plan for the Elements of Folktales

The following is a lesson plan on the elements of folktales. It comes from the following website:
http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2212/

Lesson Overview:

Students will explore the common elements of folktales and tall tales, while learning how these tales built the spirit of American people. Students will identify the tall tale elements. Students will read traditional folktales and view filmed versions of those stories. They will discuss the differences between the literary and media versions by comparing, contrasting, and analyzing the elements of each.

Length of Lesson:

Five 45-minute periods

Instructional Objectives:

Students will:

• activate prior knowledge and relate it to the reading selection.
• construct, extend, and examine meaning using strategic behaviors while reading for literary experience.
• demonstrate grade-level proficiency to use strategic reading behaviors before, during, and after reading.
• identify meanings of terms unique to literary language.
• identify the structure of literary or narrative text.
• read for literary experience.
• respond to literature through writing and discussion.
• use strategic reading behaviors to construct, extend, and examine meaning for a variety of texts.

Supplies:

• Collections of familiar folktales that include some of the following:
  • Beauty and the Beast
  • Cinderella
  • Hansel and Gretel
  • Rapunzel
  • The Three Billy Goats Gruff
• Copies of The Deer Thief (See Sources section for bibliographic information.)
• Copies of The Fox and the Crow (optional)
• Paper
• Pens or Pencils
• Videos or films of some the folktales above. (See Sources section for suggestions and bibliographic information.)

Instructional Plan:

For a warm up, have students work in small groups, scanning the collections of familiar folktales to find some of their favorites. Have each student choose a favorite tale and share with the group why he/she selected it. Each student should then write a very brief summary of the tale, explaining the characters, setting, problem, and events of his/her favorite tale. Reporters from each group should share with the whole class the group's lists and summaries. Have the students listen for elements (motifs) that appear regularly in many of the tales.

Explain to the class that folktales from all around the world frequently use familiar motifs and elements, such as these:

• the youngest and smallest of siblings is successful after others in the family fail
• wishes are granted
• magic objects (rings, beans, or tablecloths) are standard props
• animals talk
• monsters often appear
• use of trickery
• the number three is significant (however, in Native American folktales, four is the magic number)
• use of a variety of tools
• a poor person becomes rich

Talk about The Three Billy Goats Gruff as an example of a tale that uses some of these recurring motifs. Animals talk. There is a monster (the troll). The goats use trickery, and the number three is significant. Have the students review their favorite folktale and identify motifs.

Share with the students the fact that folktales are usually about ordinary people and everyday life. Other general characteristics that identify a story as a folktale include these elements:

• The stories begin quickly.
• Characters are uncomplicated (flat, not round; or one-sided, not multi-sided).
• Plots move swiftly along well-trod paths.
• All questions are answered before the story ends, but there is plenty of room for flexibility within the plot, from beginning to happy ending.

These characteristics comprise the folktale formula. Have students revisit the collection of familiar folktales to see if their lists of favorite folktales fit the folktale formula. Have the students share their findings in small groups, and then lead the whole class in developing a chart of how the various stories fit the formula.

While folktales share motifs and a common formula, they can be grouped according to certain types of tales. Listed below are groups of stories distinguished by an overarching motif.

• tales of talking animals
• tales that tell why (Pourquoi tales)
• tales of magic (fairy tales)
• cumulative tales
• tales of exaggeration (silly folk and legendary figures)

Have students return to their small groups and identify as many tales as possible under each type listed above.

Distribute copies of The Deer Thief. In this tale, a hunter turns into a detective when his deer is stolen. Read the tale to see what the clues tell the hunter-detective about the thief who stole his deer.

This story fits the definition of folktale because it is about ordinary people and everyday life. Does the story meet other criteria of the folktale formula? Are most of characters one-sided or flat? What quality does the hunter stand for? What about the Justice of Peace and the thief? Do these characters stand for qualities, or do they serve mainly to move the tale along?

Have students write a paragraph to explain how this tale fits the folktale formula.

Analyze the medium of film as a way to tell a folktale. Show some videos of familiar folktales. Ask students to discuss how the medium of film or video affected the way they experienced the story. Did it take away the imagination or creativity in their minds, or did it enhance their vision of the story? Were the stories altered in the film version (in comparison to the print version)? If so, why were these alterations made?

Assessment:

Students will be evaluated through their participation in and completion of the activities. Teachers should develop an observation checklist for assessment purposes. Paragraphs will be evaluated on students' understanding of the folktale formula.

Extensions:

Suggest that students read The Fox and the Crow. Ask students to define the quality that the hunter in The Deer Thief and the fox in The Fox and the Crow share in common (cleverness). Then direct them to write a paragraph explaining who they think is more clever. Students should follow these instructions:

Prewriting: For your prewriting notes, explain what you think cleverness involves. Does it have more to do with getting others to do what you want or with solving difficult problems? (The fox is clever because he knows that flattering the crow will make her drop the cheese. The hunter is clever because he knows how to look for clues and put them together to find the thief.)

Drafting: In drafting your paragraph, be sure to give reasons for your opinion. As you write, you may find that your reasons support another idea of cleverness. You may begin your paragraph by stating who you think is more clever—the fox or the hunter. Remember to refer to your prewriting notes as you write.

Revising: After completing your draft, share it with another student. Ask your partner for comments about the development of your ideas. Use these comments from your peer editor as guidelines for revising your draft.

Proofreading: Check for correct spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and word usage.

Have students read the following directions and retell The Deer Thief from a different perspective.

Point of View: Some stories are written as if a character in the story is telling the events. The reader experiences the story from the point of view of that character. Rewrite The Deer Thief from the point of view of either the hunter or the Justice of the Peace. Imagine that one of them is telling someone else what happened. Complete each of the steps in the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising and proofreading.

THE MITTEN

The story begins when he wants a new pair of white mittens. He grandmother tells him he will lose one in the snow, but she makes them for him anyway. The little boy goes out and climbs a tree and looses one of his mittens; just like his grandmother had warned him. A mole came and crawled in the mitten and then a rabbit. Then a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, a bear, and a mouse climbed into the mitten. The animals all made room for the other animals because each was bigger and more dangerous. Then the bear sneezed and the mitten flew up in the air and all the animals fell out. The little boy spotted his mitten in the air and went and grabbed it. His grandmother checked to make sure he still had both pairs of his mittens. Little did she know he actually lost it and found it again.

As the story continues you can see which animal is going to come into the mitten next. It shows that little boys will lose things they should not and will get lucky and find them before they get in trouble.

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

This is a story of a toy rabbit made of velveteen. He envied the mechanical toys very much because the little boy always played with them. He wished to be "real" and learned what made a toy real from the skin horse. One day the rabbit was placed in bed with the boy and the boy began to play with him. The boy took him everywhere he went and one day he even called the rabbit "real". This made the rabbit feel very special until one day when he meet two wild rabbits and they told him he was not "real". Then the little boy became very sick with scarlet fever and the rabbit stayed by the boys' side until he was taken away to be burned. This made the little rabbit so sad he cried. From his tear grew a flower with a fairy in it. The fairy transformed the velveteen rabbit into a real rabbit that lived amongst other toys that had once been real to other little boys and girls. One day the little boy saw the rabbit in the woods and thought to himself that it looked like the rabbit he had lost when he had scarlet fever.

This story teaches children not to envy what others have. What you have will someday be enough to make someone really happy. You will have many rewards if you wait patiently for them. It also presents eternal life, the toy rabbit is transformed into a real rabbit to live forever.

CORDUROY

CORDUROY is a story of a bear named Corduroy that lived in toy section of a department store. One day a little girl, named Lisa, saw him and wanted to buy him, but her mother said no. She said she had spent enough money already and the bear looked old and was missing a button. That night Corduroy searched the store for his button. He climbed on a mattress and found several, but when he pulled on them he could not get them off. When he finally popped the button off the mattress he flew to the ground and knocked over a lamp. The security guard heard this and took Corduroy back to the toy department. The very next morning Lisa came back to the store and bought Corduroy with all the money she had been saving. She took Corduroy home and sewed on a new button for him. Both Corduroy and Lisa got what they wanted, a friend.

This story shows that good things do not always have to be new and shinny. Sometimes the best things are old and need fixing. I myself have had many old toys that were my favorites.

Study Guide for WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE BY Maurice Sendak

• frames/borders around pictures get smaller as Max moves out of the real world; pictures get larger
• 1st two pictures make reader have empathy for Max
• mom and home represent civilization
• Max rebels against mother's authority and civilization
• Max mimics his mother when he tells the wild things they must go to bed without supper
• Max is simultaneously a boy and a wolf
• sheds wild thing in the last picture when his hood is off of his head
• Max is taming the wild things inside of himself
• Maternal authority of civilization
• masculine vs. feminine
  
• women and church civilized the West
• pictures tell a lot more than the text
• images of wild things; won't give nightmares
• show what a rumpus is
• moon becomes full
• ware wolf image
• published in 1963
• 1st picture book to make conflict between parent and child the central activity
• recognizes conflict exists and resolves it in the end
• pictures get smaller as Max returns to civilization
  

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD

THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD is a story of an engine that pulled a train that carried toys and good things to eat for the children that lived on the other side of the mountain. Then, all of the sudden, the happy engine broke down and could go no further. The toys began to panic they didn't know how they were going to get to the other side of the mountain. Then a shiny new engine passed by and the toys asked him if he would help them to the other side of the mountain. He said no, he was a passenger engine and he just carried a big train over the mountain. This made the toys very sad. Another engine came by, this one was a big engine, so the toys asked him to help them. He told them no, he was a freight engine and he just pulled a big train full of machines over the mountain. Once again all the toys were sad. Then another engine came by, it looked old and tired, but the toys asked for help anyway. The kind engine told them he must rest he was very tired, and that he was unable to pull the little train over the mountain. This made the toys very, very sad and they were ready to cry. Then a little blue engine came by and the toys asked her to help them. The little blue engine told them she had never been over the mountain before, but she decided she would try. She told herself "I think I can. I think I can." Slowly the little engine pulled the train over the mountain. Then she began saying "I thought I could. I thought I could." The toys all cheered for her and were very happy to make it across the mountain.

This story shows young children and even adults that they can do anything they put their minds to; if they try their very hardest. This book has always been very encouraging to me when I thought there was something I could not do. It proves that if you are kind and try to help people good things will come to you in the end and you will discover many things about yourself that you would have never known if you didn't try.

Background Information on Maurice Sendak

The following information about Maurice Sendak came from the website below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Sendak

Maurice Bernard Sendak (born June 10, 1928) is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature who is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963. An elementary school (from kindergarten to grade five) in North Hollywood, California is named in his honor.

Sendak was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish-Jewish immigrant parents, and decided to become an illustrator after viewing Walt Disney's film Fantasia at the age of twelve. His illustrations were first published in 1947 in a textbook titled Atomics for the Millions. He spent much of the 1950s working as an artist for children's books, before beginning to write his own stories.

Sendak gained international acclaim after writing and illustrating Where the Wild Things Are, though the book's depictions of fanged monsters concerned parents when it was first released, as his characters were somewhat grotesque in appearance. Sendak's seeming attraction to the forbidden or nightmarish aspects of children's fantasy have made him a subject of controversy.

Sendak’s book In the Night Kitchen, first published in 1970, has often been subjected to censorship for its drawings of a young boy prancing naked through the story. The book has been challenged, and in some instances banned, in several American states including Illinois, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Texas.

THE ALAMO CAT

THE ALAMO CAT is a true story of a cat that lived at the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas. The story begins when the night guard Zira found a kitten in a tree. He knew it was against the rules to have animals living on the grounds, but he decided to let the kitten stay for one night. The kitten ended up eating his dinner and came back the next night and was waiting for Zira. Zira decided the kitten needed a name so he named her Ruby. Word spread that Zira and Kensey, another guard, were the only two that could touch the kitten. It was agreed that Ruby could live at the Alamo as long as she had her shots every year. Zira agreed to take her to the vet that night. Ruby would wait at the gate every evening for Zira to arrive, she would walk the grounds with him and then share his dinner. One day Zira noticed that Ruby was getting fat, the very next day a veterinarian visited the Alamo and said Ruby was pregnant. Once Ruby had her kittens birth announcements were sent to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. The kittens had many visitors including people from the newspaper and the television station. As the kittens grew older, they had to be given away and Ruby had to be spayed. They had no trouble finding homes for the wonderful kittens. After her kittens were gone Ruby made the rounds with Zira again. One night she even protected him from a raccoon and fell into the water ditch. Zira chased the raccoon away and worried about it returning. The next night Zira had off of work, in the morning he received a phone call from Kensey. He told Zira they found Ruby drowned in the ditch, they were not sure what happened to her. Some think the raccoon came back and killed Ruby and others think the mockingbirds chased her. Ruby was buried and given a headstone at the Alamo. Some say you can still hear and sense her presence there.

I chose this book because I live very close to San Antonio, and have visited it many times. I also think it is a very interesting story.

LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS

This story takes place in the woods of Wisconsin; Laura, Mary, Ma, Pa, and baby Carie live in a log cabin. At the beginning of the story the family is getting ready for the long winter. Pa smokes meat in a log that he hollowed out and put a roof over and, Ma and the girls harvest the vegetables. Once winter comes Laura and Mary have to play inside and help Ma. They liked helping make fresh butter, Ma would shape it into strawberries. One day Pa shot a bear that had stolen someone's pig. He brought both the bear and pig home and they had even more fresh meat for the winter. At night Pa would set the girls on his lap and tell them stories; once they were settled into bed Pa would play his fiddle until the girls had fallen asleep. Pa carried his gun with him every where he went, in the evenings the girls would watch Pa make bullets and load his gun. Then Christmas came and their Aunt Eliza and Uncle Peter and their children came to visit, Laura and Mary were allowed to go outside and play in the snow with their cousins. They would fall face down in the snow off of tree stumps and try to make a perfect impression of themselves in the snow. They all woke up the next morning and found gifts in their stockings. On Sundays the girls had to put on their best dresses and play quietly after they listened to Ma read from the Bible. Laura did not like this very much and threw a fit one day. Pa told him a story of how he and his brothers broke the rules and went sledding one Sunday afternoon. He told Laura that he was going to have to punish her the next day for being a bad little girl. After this Laura never complained again. One day Pa had gone to town to trade his furs, he had so many that he was unable to carry his gun with him and he would not be getting back home until dark. This meant that Ma had to do the feeding. She took Laura with her; once they got outside they saw the cow was outside her stable so, Ma went up to it and slapped it. After she slapped the cow she realized that it wasn't the cow it was a bear! She quickly told Laura to go back to the house and they made it back in safely. When Pa got back home he told the girls that on his way home he saw a bear standing in the middle of the path. He picked up a big log that he saw and hit the bear on the head as hard as he could. It turned out that it was only a tree stump the entire time. Over the next several days, the snow began to melt and Laura and Mary would soon be able to play outside. But one night it began to snow again, in the morning Pa left for Grandpa's house because he said it was sugar snow. Laura had no idea what sugar snow was and wondered all day until Pa came back home with Maple sugar, Maple syrup and Maple cakes. Pa them explained that Grandpa put hollowed sticks into the trees and out came Maple syrup, this began to happen after the snow began to melt and then it snowed again. Pa also told the girls that Grandpa was going to have a dance on Saturday. The girls washed early that week and got prepared to go to Grandpa's the following day. Once they arrived they helped Grandma get everything ready for that evening. Everyone put on their nice dresses and pants and fixed their hair, soon after company began to arrive. Dinner was then served and everyone ate until they could eat no more. Then the music started playing and everyone began to dance, they danced for a long time, and Grandma stayed in the kitchen and stired some syrup. Then she was challenged to jig, so she left the stove and began to jig with Uncle George. After she finally won, she ran back to the stove and yelled that the syrup was waxing, everyone grabbed a plate full of snow and ate all the Maple candy they possibly could. Then spring came and Pa told the girls they were old enough to go to town, Laura and Mary had never seen a town before and were greatly excited. Summer soon came and Pa planted his wheat, he was busy in the field everyday and no longer played his fiddle at night. When it was time to harvest the wheat Uncle Henry came and helped Pa harvest his wheat, and then the family went to Uncle Henry's so Pa could help him harvest his wheat. Uncle Henry decided that his son Charley was old enough to begin to help in the field. Charley misbehaved and kept tricking Pa and Uncle Henry that something was wrong with him. Then Charley stomped on a yellow jacket nest, on accident, and began screaming; Uncle Henry and Pa thought he was trying to trick them again, so the ignored him. Ma and Aunt Polly put mud all over Charley and wrapped him in old sheets and sent him to bed. Pa told Ma and the girls that Charley deserved what happened to him for trying to trick he and Uncle Henry. Pa convinced Uncle Henry that they should get someone to bring a harvesting machine. So the day after all the wheat was harvested some men brought a machine and Pa and Uncle Henry were able to get twice as much wheat as they would have been able to by hand. Pa was then able to go hunting again. He set up a salt-lick for the deer and watched them. He watched several animals and was unable to kill them, he came back home with no meat for Ma and the girls. He explained what had happened and the girls told Pa that they were not mad at him.

Throughout this story you gain much background information on many of the characters through Pa's stories. You also see Mary and Laura slowly maturing, though they have to learn many lessons. Baby Carrie is not mentioned a lot in this book. It is only said that she is there, you never know what she is doing. You learn that Pa is the soul provider for the family, and he works very hard.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

King Stefan and his queen had a daughter named Aurora; one day they had a feast to honor her. There it was decided that Aurora was to marry Prince Phillip some day. Three faeries, Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, came and blessed Aurora, but before the third one could bless her the evil witch Maleficent cursed Aurora; she would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die on her sixteenth birthday. So the third fairy, Merryweather, tried to reverse the curse by only putting Aurora to sleep until true loves first kiss. King Stefan had every spinning wheel in the land burned and Aurora was sent to live with the faeries. They changed her name to Briar Rose and lived live as normal people. On her sixteenth birthday Briar Rose was sent to pick berries, so the faeries could surprise her. While she was out she ran into a handsome young man, who of course was Prince Phillip. She went back to the cottage to tell the faeries that she was in love, they told her that could not be because she was a princess and she was to marry Prince Phillip. So the faeries took Aurora back to her parents castle, but before they could her there safely; Maleficent tricked Aurora into a room with a spinning wheel and pricked her finger. The curse came true, so the faeries decided to put everyone to sleep until the princess was awoken so that no one would be broken hearted. Prince Phillip raced to the tower to rescue his princess, along the way Maleficent sent up many obstacles that Phillip had to overcome. He did this and killed Maleficent and rescued his princess and they lived happily ever after.

This is a classic story of a princess having to be rescued by her prince. You see the evil figure that is in most fairy tales. Many characters would be helpless and sad if it wasn't for the faeries magic. You see many weak female characters throughout the story, the queen is never given an actual name.

STUDY GUIDE FOR THE CAT IN THE HAT BY DR. SEUSS

• THEODOR S. GEISEL
• POLITICAL CARTOONIST
• CHILDREN'S BOOKS CAME LATER IN CAREER
  
• NAME SEUSS CAME IN 1925 WHEN HE SIGNED A CARTOON
• NOT ALL CHILDREN'S BOOKS PUBLISHED UNDER THE NAME SEUSS
• 1955-DART MOTH GAVE GEISEL AN HONORARY PHD
• HAD 16 OUT OF 100 ALL TIME BEST SELLING HARD COVER BOOKS
• THE CAT IN THE HAT
• GEISEL WAS CHALLENGED TO WRITE A BOOK FOR 1ST GRADERS THAT THEY COULDN'T PUT DOWN; HAD A WORD LIST OF 225 WORDS
• PART OF THE BEGINNER BOOKS SERIES
• EASY READER GENRE
• POETRY
  
• EASY TO LEARN
• SUBVERSION OF AUTHORITY
• FISH- THE VOICE OF AUTHORITY
• EVERY RULE OF THE HOUSE WAS BROKEN
• CAT IS A TRICKSTER FIGURE
• LET HIMSELF INSIDE THE HOUSE
• CONS KIDS INTO LETTING HIM STAY
• CONS KIDS INTO BRAKING EVERY RULE IN THE HOUSE
  

LOVE YOU FOREVER

LOVE YOU FOREVER is a story of a mother who rocks her son every night after he has gone to bed. As she rocks him she says, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be." She continues to go into his room every night and rock him; as he grows older she rocks him less and less. Once he moves out of his mother's house and starts his own family, his mother would occasionally drive across town to rock her baby boy. One day the mother calls her son to tell him she is very sick and dying and he needed to come see her. When he arrives his mother tries to sing to him and is unable to finish her song; so he gently rocks his mother and tells her, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my Mommy you'll be." Upon arriving to his home the man picks up his new baby daughter and rocks her and tells her the same thing his mother once told him.


This book has always been one of my favorites, it shows that no matter how many horrible things children do their parents will still love them. It also shows that kids hear more than you think they do. Even though the boy was always asleep when his mother was talking to him, he was able to repeat what she said to her and to his own child.

MATILDA

Matilda is a story of a young girl who pretty much raises herself. Her father leaves early in the mornings to go to work, where he sales dirty-second-hand cars. Her mother leaves to play bingo in a nearby town, and her brother goes to school. Matilda learned to cook and care for herself. She loved to read; she read and memorized the cookbook they had in their house by heart. She soon would go down to the public library every day to read. Her parents never paid much attention to her and when they did they were mean and rude. One day Matilda got the idea, from a book that she needed to punish her parents for treating her the way they did. Since her dad was a crook, Matilda put super glue in his hat one day, and her mother had to cut it off of him, hair and all. She also went next door and got a talking parrot, from the little boy that lived there, and hid it in the chimney. When her parents came home that evening and it started talking Matilda told them it must have been a ghost and their house must be haunted. This frightened her parents very much and they were kinder to Matilda for a while. One day Matilda's dad, Mr. Wormwood, came home from work and gave her brother some sums to work in order to figure out the profit he had mad that day. Matilda gave him the answer and he told her she was a liar and a cheat; he thought she saw the paper in his hand. The next morning Matilda put some of her mother's hair dye in the bottle of oil that her father used every morning; this bleached his hair and he became very upset. When Matilda was five and a half she started school. Her teacher was Miss Honey and every child liked her very much. Miss Honey took a great notice to how intelligent Matilda was. When she tried to tell the Headmistress Miss Truchbull how intelligent Matilda was she told Miss Honey that her father thought she was a trouble maker and a cheat. The Miss Honey tried to inform Matilda's parents how smart she was and all they were concerned about was the TV program they were missing. Matilda was given permission by Miss Honey not to pay attention in class and was given other books to study. One day when Miss Trunchbull came to give her weekly lesson to Miss Honey's class, another student, named Lavender, put a newt in the pitcher of water that Miss Trunchbull drinks out of. Once Miss Trunchbull poured herself a glass and saw the newt in it she instantly blamed Matilda for it. Matilda was sitting at her desk the entire time and told Miss Trunchbull that she didn't do it. Then Matilda stared at the glass with her eyes and a power came over her. She told the glass to tip over and it did. Matilda explained what had happened to her after class that day and Matilda went to Miss Honey’s cottage after school for some tea. There Matilda learned about Miss Honey’s horrible past and discussed with her more what she thought she could do with her powers. One her way back to her house that evening she began to come up with a plan. She practiced her powers every day after school with a cigar of her father’s until she could manipulate it however she wanted. The next week when Miss Trunchbull came to teach the class their lesson, Matilda made the chalk move and wrote Miss Trunchbull's first name on the board. Upon seeing this Miss Trunchbull became scared and asked who was making the chalk move. The chalk then wrote on the board the name of her dead brother, Miss Honey’s father, and told her to give the house back to Miss Honey and to leave town. That is exactly what Miss Truchbull did. One day after school, Matilda left Miss Honey's to go back home, when she got there her parents were packing everything they could. Matilda's father told her they were leaving for Spain in thirty minutes. Matilda ran back to Miss Honey's house to tell her the terrible news and that she did not want to go to Spain she wanted to live with Miss Honey. Miss Honey told her she would love that but she must have her parents’ permission to live there. They ran back to Matilda's and Matilda's parents told her that was fine as long as they didn't miss their plane. So Matilda moved in with Miss Honey in the house that Miss Honey grew up in.

This story shows how much children are capable of. They are much smarter than many people think they are. They can learn a lot if they are challenged to do so. It also shows the child's imagination, Matilda thinks her father needs to be punished because she read things in books. Books also open up a child's imagination to many new ideas. It also shows parents that they need to spend quality time, being productive, with their children. Parents also must learn that children do not always make up horrible stories about school; sometimes horrible things really do happen. Parents must be able to decide what is true or not so that something can be done about the problems.

Backgroung information on Beatrix Potter

The following information about Beatrix Potter came from the following website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beatrix_Potter

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 July 1866 – 22 December 1943) was an English author and illustrator, mycologist, and conservationist, best known for her children's books, which featured animal characters such as Peter Rabbit.

Born into a privileged household, Potter was educated by governesses, and grew up isolated from other children. She had numerous pets and through holidays in Scotland and the Lake District developed a love of landscape, flora and fauna, all which she closely observed and painted. As a young woman her parents discouraged intellectual development, but her study and paintings of fungi led her to be widely respected in the field of mycology. In her thirties Potter published the highly successful children's book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and became secretly engaged to her publisher Norman Warne causing a breach with her parents, who disapproved of his social status. Warne died before the wedding could take place.

Potter eventually published 23 children's books, and having become financially independent of her parents, was able to buy a farm in the Lake District, which she extended with other purchases over time. In her forties she married a local solicitor, William Heelis. She became a sheep breeder and farmer while continuing to write and illustrate children's books. Potter died in 1943, and left almost all of her property to The National Trust in order to preserve the beauty of the Lake District as she had known it, protecting it from developers.

Potter's books continue to sell well throughout the world, in multiple languages. Her stories have been retold in various formats, including a ballet, films and in animation.

Some more quotes by Roald Dahl

The following quotes by Roald Dahl came from the following website:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/roald_dahl.html

Pear Drops were exciting because they had a dangerous taste. All of us were warned against eating them, and the result was that we ate them more than ever.

Prayers were held in Assembly Hall. We all perched in rows on wooden benches while teachers sat up on the platform in armchairs, facing us.

The Bristol Channel was always my guide, and I was always able to draw an imaginary line from my bed to our house over in Wales. It was a great comfort.

The writer has to force himself to work. He has to make his own hours and if he doesn't go to his desk at all there is nobody to scold him.

The writer walks out of his workroom in a daze. He wants a drink. He needs it.

Though my father was Norwegian, he always wrote his diaries in perfect English.

To shipbrokers, coal was black gold.

Two hours of writing fiction leaves this writer completely drained. For those two hours he has been in a different place with totally different people.

Unless you have been to boarding-school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home.

When I walked to school in the mornings I would start out alone but would pick up four other boys along the way. We would set out together after school across the village green.

When I was 2, we moved into an imposing country mansion 8 miles west of Cardiff, Wales.

ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK

In this book Laura and her family finally stop their travel at Plum Creek. She and her family live in a dugout for the first part of the book; Pa trades the wagon and horses for it. One day Laura was playing near the deep water by herself and discovered a strange animal, she told Pa and he told her it was a badger. Plum Creek flooded one day and the water was up to the door of the dugout. Laura was told not to go outside, but she did anyway. She was playing on the footbridge and was almost swept away by the rushing current. Pa bought horses for the family that Christmas and told them they would be rich when he harvested the wheat. He also borrowed some wood and built a wonderful house for Ma with a stove and a lean-to. One day Pa took Laura to the waterfall and showed her how to set up a fish-trap. After this they were able to have plenty of fish to eat. It was time for Laura and Mary to start school; so one morning Ma sent them with her old books. The other children made fun of them because they were country girls and their dresses were too short. Nellie Oleson was the worst of all, she always bragged about what she had because her father owned a store in town and she could have everything she wanted. On Sundays the family would go to church in the wagon and the girls would attend Sunday School. Laura and Mary were expected to learn their verses and repeat them the following week; they enjoyed this very much. One day millions of grasshoppers came raining out of the sky. Pa tried to smoke them out of his wheat field but it was no use. They ate everything in sight and laid their eggs. Pa was unable to harvest for two years, and during harvest season he had to walk hundreds of miles to find work. The first year he left he had many holes in his patched boots and his family worried whether or not he had made it; the second year the girls made a count-down on their slate until the day Pa would return. During the next winter there were many three day blizzards; Pa left for town one day in between two of them and got trapped outside for four days. He returned home and had eaten all the oyster crackers and the girls Christmas candy that he had bought. They all agreed that they didn't care that Pa had eaten them, they were just glad he was alive and with them on Christmas.

In this story you see Laura and Mary growing older and gaining responsiblity, they must go to school, learn their verses, and they are left to take care of Carrie. However you also see very playful young girls who get into trouble. They know when they have done something bad and know they will get punished for it.

Background information on THE GIVER

The following background information about THE GIVER came from the following web site:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giver

The Giver is a novel written by Lois Lowry and published on April 16, 1993. It is set in a future society which is at first presented as a utopian society and gradually appears more and more dystopian; therefore, it could be considered anti-utopian. The novel follows a boy named Jonas through the twelfth year of his life. Jonas' society has eliminated pain and strife by converting to "Sameness", a plan which has also eradicated emotional depth from their lives. Jonas is selected to inherit the position of "Receiver of Memory," the person who stores all the memories of the time before Sameness, in case they are ever needed to aid in decisions that others lack the experience to make. As Jonas receives the memories from his predecessor—the "Giver"—he discovers how shallow his community's life has become.

Despite controversy and criticism that the book's subject material is inappropriate for young children, The Giver won the 1994 Newbery Medal and has sold more than 5.3 million copies. In the United States and Canada it is a part of many middle school reading lists, but it is also on many banned book lists. The novel forms a loose trilogy with Gathering Blue (2000) and Messenger (2004), two other books set in the same future era.

More quotes by Roald Dahl

The following quotes by Roald Dahl came from the following website:
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/r/roald_dahl.html



I am only 8 years old, I told myself. No little boy of 8 has ever murdered anyone. It's not possible.

I began to realise that the large chocolate companies actually did possess inventing rooms, and they took their inventing very seriously.

I began to realize how simple life could be if one had a regular routine to follow with fixed hours, a fixed salary, and very little original thinking to do.

I devised a stunt for getting myself sent back home. My idea was that I should all of a sudden develop an attack of acute appendicitis.

I do have a blurred memory of sitting on the stairs and trying over and over again to tie one of my shoelaces, but that is all that comes back to me of school itself.

I shot down some German planes and I got shot down myself, crashing in a burst of flames and crawling out, getting rescued by brave soldiers.

I was a fighter pilot, flying Hurricanes all round the Mediterranean. I flew in the Western Desert of Libya, in Greece, in Syria, in Iraq and in Egypt.

My father was a Norwegian who came from a small town near Oslo. He broke his arm at the elbow when he was 14, and they amputated it.

Nobody gets a nervous breakdown or a heart attack from selling kerosene to gentle country folk from the back of a tanker in Somerset.

Nowadays you can go anywhere in the world in a few hours, and nothing is fabulous any more.

Pain was something we were expected to endure. But I doubt very much if you would be entirely happy today if a doctor threw a towel in your face and jumped on you with a knife.

Study Guide For THE GIVER

• Considered Science Fiction by many
• Considered Fantasy by Russell
• can be fairly didactic
• technology
• climate control
• no hills
• no illness
• no pain
• no war
• The Giver
  
• gives memories by touch
• represents fantasy
• has all the memories of the world
• The Community
• Appears to be a Utopia
• perfect world
• doesn't and couldn't exist
• Characteristics of The Community
• Sameness (lesser jobs exist)
• no choices
• no color
• no memories of/from previous generations (live in the now)
• no pain
• no need
• no extreme emotions (love/hate; anger/joy; etc.)
• no sex
• no animals
• climate control
• Release
• Rituals
• evening- telling of feelings
• morning- telling of dreams
• yearly age ceremony
• release of old ceremony
• population strictly controlled
• possessions standardized
• regimented lives (every hour and action of the day prescribed by rules)
• no illness
• seems to be no war
• no competition (drive to do well)
• no celebrations
• always keep number that was given at birth
• no religion
• no question of authority
  
• mature society (never kids being kids)
• disconnected (no relationships as we know them)
• happily obedient
  
• Not what it appears to be/missing/wrong
  
• no choices
• things/people/places seem utilitarian rather than pleasurable, happy
  
• The community
• institutionalized
• Dwelling
• Family Unit
• Comfort object (stuffed animals)
• prescribed language, relationships
• no real joy, pleasure, happiness, LOVE
• no sexual relationships, no bonding in relationships
• no religion/faith (not needed)
• Release
• no color
• no memories
• no art or expression
• no advancement
• no real growth in apologizing
  
• all real pain belongs to one person (The Receiver/Giver
• nothing genuine
  
• no depth/shallow
  

A criticism on Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY

The following criticism on Roald Dahl's CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY came from the following website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_and_the_Chocolate_Factory#Criticisms

Although the book has always been popular, over the years a number of prominent individuals have spoken critically of the novel. Children's novelist and literary historian John Rowe Townsend has described the book as "fantasy of an almost literally nauseating kind" and accusing it of "astonishing insensitivity" regarding the original portrayal of the Oompa-Loompas as black pygmies^[1] , although Dahl did revise this later. Another novelist, Eleanor Cameron, compared the book to the candy that forms its subject matter, commenting that it is "delectable and soothing while we are undergoing the brief sensory pleasure it affords but leaves us poorly nourished with our taste dulled for better fare".^[2] Ursula Le Guin voiced her support for this assessment in a letter to Cameron.^[3] Defenders of the book have pointed out that it was unusual for its time in being quite dark for a children's book, with the "antagonists" not being adults or monsters (as is the case even for most of Dahl's books) but the naughty children.

Study guide for the hobbit

• Bilbo as a hero
• everyman aspect
• not a great hero
• outwits dragons
• desire to do great things
• serves as a mediator during the war
• given the identity of a burglar by Gandolf
  
• ironically Bilbo becomes a great burglar
• find elevin swords
• wins the riddle battle with Gollum
• decided to move forward on his own
• shows Gollum mercy
• earns the respect of the dwarves
• defeats the spiders at Mirkwood
• recognized as the leader of the adventure
• gained several heroic epithets
• Good vs. Evil
• Good characters
• Bilbo
• Gandolf
• dwarves
• elves
• Beorn
• men
• eagles
  
• Evil characters
  
• trolls
• goblins
• Gollum
• wargs
• Smaug
• spiders
  

Some background information on J.R.R. Tolkein

The following information about J.R.R. Tolkien was taken from the following website:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, CBE (IPA: /ˈtoʊl.kiːn/^[1]) (3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer, poet, philologist and university professor, best known as the author of the high fantasy classic works The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

Tolkien was Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and Merton Professor of English language and literature from 1945 to 1959. He was a close friend of C. S. Lewis – they were both members of the informal literary discussion group known as the Inklings. Tolkien was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on 28 March 1972.

After his death, Tolkien's son, Christopher, published a series of works based on his father's extensive notes and unpublished manuscripts, including The Silmarillion. These, together with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, form a connected body of tales, poems, fictional histories, invented languages, and literary essays about an imagined world called Arda, and Middle-earth^[2] within it. Between 1951-1955 Tolkien applied the word legendarium to the larger part of these writings.^[3]

While many other authors had published works of fantasy before Tolkien,^[4] the great success of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings when they were published in paperback in the United States led directly to a popular resurgence of the genre. This has caused Tolkien to be popularly identified as the "father" of modern fantasy literature^[5] – or more precisely, high fantasy.^[6] Tolkien's writings have inspired many other works of fantasy and have had a lasting effect on the entire field. In 2008 The Times ranked him number 6 in a list of 'The 50 greatest British writers since 1945'.^[7]