Traditional/Folk Literature

Book List:
-Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa
-Finn McCool and the Great Fish
-The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood
-Little Red Riding Hood
-Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa

Zomo the Rabbit: A Trickster Tale from West Africa, Written by Gerald McDermott

Summary: Zomo the Rabbit is an African trickster tale. Zomo is a very clever rabbit but still seeks wisdom. When he goes to the Sky God to request wisdom, he is given 3 impossible tasks he must complete to be granted wisdom. The Sky God asks him to bring him the scales of the fish, the milk of a cow and the tooth of the leopard. To do so he uses trickery. He accomplishes the tasks and receives wisdom (courage and good sense) but finds out he lacks caution. Now that he has angered the fish, cow and leopard, he must be very careful when he comes into contact with those who he tricked.

Implementation: I think this stories theme is primarily karma. What goes around, comes around is an important thing for children to learn. With my 5th graders now, there is a lot of bullying and sass talking throughout the grade, after reading this book I would have a nice long discussion about building good karma by how you treat others. Furthermore, the trickery Zomo uses to get wisdom is relative to cheating to get a good grade. Seeking wisdom or good grades goes beyond trickery or cheating, it must be honest!

Finn McCool and the Great Fish, Written by Eve Bunting, Illustrated by Zachary Pullen

Summary: This story, set in Ireland, is about a great giant, Finn McCool who is a strong warrior yet very happy and friendly with the people of Ireland. With all his great strength and kindness, he lacks wisdom. In his search, he goes to the old man who lives in another village, who is known to hold the secret of wisdom, and asks him how to gain the secret. The old man had been waiting for Finn because he knew he would do the most good with it, he instructed Finn to go to the River Boyne and catch the great fish, cook it and eat it. Within the fish lies the wisdom of the world. So Finn goes fishing and eventually catches the salmon. He finds he cannot find himself to kill it and in return the fish speaks to him. Something magical happens and Finn gains the wisdom from the fish without having to kill it. He does well in the eyes of the people and the fish, and finds the old man has disappeared leaving behind a path of what might have been brilliantly colored fish scales.

Implementation: With a laugh at the end and beautiful illustration, this tells a very nice story. To implement this book in the classroom, I would do text to text compare and contrast lessons with different giants (Jack and the Beanstalk). Also, students could practice their foreshadowing techniques. Since there is some Irish slang in the book, a geography lesson as well as cultural diversity could be tied to the story.

The Wolf’s Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood, Written by Toby Forward, Illustrated by Izhar Cohen

Summary: This tells the traditional Little Red Riding Hood story from the wolves perspective. It starts with his explanation of his relationship with the Grandmother and how he spent a lot of time at her house doing odd jobs for her and she enjoyed the company. What he didn’t like was that when the girl came, he didn’t get paid any attention. So one day he met the girl as she came up the path and when she didn’t speak to him he ran ahead to beat her home. He met Grandmother at her closet reaching for a dress and when he went to help her she fell, bumped her head, and was knocked out. Not wanting to be blamed for causing any trouble, the wolf slipped the dress on. When the girl came, she was apprehensive of the wolf and tried to feed him her toffee…well he didn’t like this so he got up to run away and just then the woodsman opened the door and cut of his tail as he slipped out. The wolf went all the way to town.

Implementation: I really like the dialogue aspect of this text. I would enjoy hearing students practice expressive read aloud tone. The storytelling idea of this book offers an example to students of different ways to write a story. Furthermore, they could learn to write from a different perspective. I remember reading a story in high school and having to write from a different characters perspective-this paves the way for creativity and imaginative writing that excites children. This book would also serve as a vocabulary practice/using context to decode words…versatile, altered, frightening...

Little Red Riding Hood, Written by Jerry Pickney

Summary: A young girl sets out to go to her sick grandmothers, to bring her soup and muffins. Along the way she runs into a wolf that she explains her trip to. He decides to join her on the walk, suggesting she collect kindling wood for a fire. Once she begins to gather wood, he runs ahead to the grandmother’s house and eats her so he can take her place. Once disguised, he crawls in the bed and waits for the little girl to arrive. The little girl comes inside and notices the differences in her grandmother and all at once eats her as well. When he is finished, he decides to take a nap and snores so loud a woodsmen passing by hears and decides to check on the old woman. He finds the wolf in her clothes napping and notices his stomach snoring. It takes him no time at all to figure out what has happened and kills the wolf. The grandmother and little girl crawl out and the three enjoy soup and muffins. The bad wolf was buried and never harmed them again.

Implementation: To introduce the idea of a traditional story, this is a good place to start. This story tells the original Little Red Riding Hood story that has been told for years. It also serves as a comparison piece for the variations of the story. I can recall using this story as a play in school, and then we had to write our own version and act that one out. Students would be able to explore their own creativity to come up with an interesting twist to the story.

Pretty Salma: A Little Red Riding Hood Story from Africa, Written by Niki Daly

Summary: Salma is a little girl who lives with her grandparents in a village in Africa. Her grandmother asks her to go to the market and sends her on her way with money wearing a blue scarf, ntama, white beads and yellow sandals. She filled her basket with all sorts of goods and continued on her way. While walking back, she came across Mr. Dog who began to ask her questions as well as offer his assistance carrying the basket and wearing her clothes. All along, he is tricking her! Once he becomes disguised as Pretty Salma, she realizes what he has done and asked for her things back but he threatens to bite her in two. She runs away to find her grandfather because she knows where the wolf is headed. She and her grandfather disguise themselves in the storytelling masks he uses and follow the wolf to their home, scare them and save granny.

Implementation: Obviously this would be used as a variation of the traditional story in an alternative setting and plot. The text is in different places all over the page, which would be good practice for students. This formatting would also offer something they can attempt in their own writing.

Realistic/Historical Fiction

Book List:
-Because of Winn-Dixie
-The Boxcar Children Graphic Novel #4: Mystery Ranch
-Going North
-Shoeshine Girl
-Rules