Writing Connections with Kelly Barnhill

by Mary Quattlebaum

Kelly Barnhill’s atmospheric novel The Girl Who Drank the Moon won this year’s Newbery Medal.  In an interview with the KidsPost section of the Washington Post, Barnhill talks about trying to create nuanced characters and her desire for a pet dragon as a kid.

Below are writing lessons for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.  Barnhill’s website has a hilarious FAQ about her writing process and information on her other books.

CREATING CHARACTERS:  Exploring Stereotype:  Barnhill’s novel is full of witches, who are usually presented as problematic in most books. Witches often are the villains or antagonists in fairy tales, for example.  Barnhill said that she wanted to push beyond the usual stereotype of the witch as mean (even evil), old, homely, and solitary.  Her witch characters are unique individuals, with a mix of positive and negative traits.

Classroom Discussion:  Have kids read the novel and make a list of the positive and negative traits for some of the witches.

Classroom Discussion and Writing:  Have students think about a character in a fairy tale or story that is usually presented in a stereotyped way.  The wolf in “The Three Little Pigs” or “Little Red Riding Hood,” is an example of a character that is usually presented only with negative traits.   The princess (“Cinderella,” “Snow White”) is usually presented with only positive traits.  Ask students to read their fairy tale carefully and list traits of this character or what they learn about the character from this tale.  Then ask them to give this character 1 or 2 traits that are the opposite of what they listed.  For example, the wolf might be listed as “nurturing” or Cinderella as “lazy.”  Ask students to write a story or even just a short scene to show this character with at least one positive and one negative trait.

An Unexpected Character:  We usually think of dragons as large fierce characters but the young witch’s pet in Barnhill’s novel is a tiny bossy dragon.  Classroom Discussion:  Ask kids to list some the physical and psychological traits of one of their favorite animals.  Then ask them to change one or two of the traits to its opposite (for example, from “big” to “small” of from “cuddly” to “fierce”), and in this way the character becomes fresh and unexpected.  Classroom Writing:  Ask students to create a story about or that includes such an unexpected pet.   Perhaps the unexpected pet is even the main character!  What happens next?

Ask a few students to volunteer to read their pieces aloud.  As a group, discuss what they learned about creating more nuanced or well-rounded characters and unexpected pets.

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Writing Connections with Pam Munoz Ryan

by Mary Quattlebaum

Pam Munoz Ryan brings magic and music to a novel about social justice in Echo (Scholastic, 2015, ages 10-14). I talked recently with Pam about this new novel, set during World War II, and its magical harmonica.  Click here for the KidsPost/WashingtonPost  article.

Below are a few writing prompts for the classroom or for individual writers ages 8 and up.

FAIRY TALES AND MAGICAL OBJECTS:  The book opens with a fairy tale and an unlikely magical object: the ordinary harmonica.

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students how the harmonica helped the three children in the separate stories.  What did students learn about harmonicas?

Classroom Writing:  Ask students to bring in an ordinary object from home (baseball bat, stuffed toy, box, charm, etc.).  Have them write their own tale in which this object is magical.  What does it do?  If they do some research into the object (as Pam did with the harmonica), how might it enter into or make the tale even more interesting?

SOCIAL JUSTICE:  All the young characters wrestle with issues of social justice.  In Nazi Germany, Friedrich is marked as “undesirable” because of his birthmark.  In Pennsylvania, Mike and his younger brother can be farmed out to do unpaid labor by their orphanage.  In California, Ivy, who is Mexican American, must go to a school that’s different (and has fewer resources) than the one for white children.

Classroom Discussion:  How do these three children deal with the injustice in their lives?  Brainstorm other times in history when there was injustice (slavery, Civil Rights era, women denied the vote, etc.).  How did things change?  Have students think about some rules they may consider unfair at school or ways they feel they may have been treated unjustly at home or in the wider world.  How did this make them feel?  What did they do?  Have them list, first alone and then as a group, some injustices they see in this country and in the wider world.  What are some ways they might create change?

Classroom Writing:  Make up a character (or write about yourself) in a moment of injustice. First describe the injustice and how it affects others.  Then write about what happens to you or your character.  Read aloud and discuss.

MORE DETAILS ABOUT PAM:  Pam’s author website is www.pammunozryan.com.   

Writing Connections with Origami Yoda

by Mary Quattlebaum

Three childhood passions—drawing, origami and writing—come together for author/illustrator Tom Angleberger in his Origami Yoda series.  I had a chance to talk with Tom recently about the wildly popular seven-book series. These books make strong models for classroom writing and can jumpstart playful exercises.  Tom shared his thoughts and process, and below I offer a few writing exercises connected to the last book in the series, Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus (Abrams, 2014, ages 8-12).  As Origami Yoda, the wise finger puppet, might say:  “Write you must.”

*  MAKING UP WORDS:  The middle-school characters in Emperor Pickletine Rides the Bus use a made-up word, “stooky,” which means “cool” or “awesome.”  Classroom Writing:  Have students separate into five or so groups.  Each group must make up three words, with one meaning “cool,” the second, “stupid,” and the third, “angry.”  How might the made-up words sound like what it means?  Or reflect something that seems representative of that word?  (For example, the made-up word “volnormous” might mean “very angry.”  Ask students to write their made-up words in a sentence or paragraph and/or use it conversation at some point during the day or at home.  What was their listeners’ reactions?   

*  PERCEPTION AND VOICE: The book is a wonderful example of multi-voiced narration.  Many young characters contribute and each voice is different.  Tom says that each book presents it own challenges and that a particular challenge for him with Origami Yoda was crafting girl voices.  “I had never worked with girl narrators before,” he said.  “I had to work hard to make their voices and thoughts seem believable.”

Classroom Discussion:  Ask students to look carefully at a few simultaneous chapters.  How does each character see a certain situation differently?  Also, what makes Tommy sound like Tommy?  Or Sara like Sara?  What makes each voice unique?  (Students might look at vocabulary, sentence structure, words frequently used by that character, character’s overall attitude towards things.)

Classroom Writing:  Have students put Harvey and Tommy (or Harvey and Sara) in a museum they have visited.  How does Harvey look at this thing (a sculpture, a dinosaur model, a historic airplane)?  Now, describe it in Harvey’s voice.  How about Tommy or Sara?

* SNACK FOOD FIGURES:  In the book, the characters make Star Wars figures from snack foods.  Students might do this for homework, take a photo, and post it on Tom’s origamiyoda.com website.  Or they might eat their creation, as Dwight does with his fruit roll-up creation Fruitigami Yoda.

* MORE “STOOKY” DETAILS ABOUT TOM:  Click here for my interview in KidsPost section of the Washington Post.

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