Thursday, June 25, 2009

Hot off the Shelves #8

Hungry! Hungry! Hungry! by Malachy Doyle is the eighth hot book plucked off the shelves of our beloved library. It is written in a simple dialogue- question- answer, between a boy and a goblin.

Writing Minilesson Ideas:

Dialogue: This is a shoo-in for a minilesson on dialogue. Playful speech bubbles are used in the text, which could be examined, discussed, and then rewritten using quotation marks.

Ellipses and Functional Fragments: The goblin answers the boy's questions in fragments with ellipses at the end. Discuss why the author may have chosen to write it this way and challenge your young writers to try these techniques.

Vivid Verbs: Compare the verbs the boy uses to those the goblin uses. Discuss why the author may have chosen to write it this way. Challenge your students use more active verbs in their writing.

Presentation: The speech bubbles and different fonts lend themselves easily to at least a mention of presentation. There is also a fold-out at the end that could be used as a model if students would like to try something like that in their writing.
Tension: Throughout the book, it seems the goblin is hungry and may just like to eat the boy as a little snack. The tension builds until the last page. Good discussion point.
This would be a cute book to use as a mentor text in October... or at the beginning of the year when you are building relationships. You could discuss appearances and how they may be deceiving-- the whole "Don't judge a book by its cover" thing. Regardless of how you choose to use it, if you are "hungry" for a different kind of mentor text, this book is for you!

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