Desk Stories

Title: Desk Stories

Author and Illustrator: Kevin O’Malley

Copyright Date: 2011

Genre: fiction (graphic novel)

Theme: desks, school, humor

Grades: 2-4

Awards: 2012 IRA-CBC Children's Choices

Summary

This book is made up of six separate stories, all about a different take on the school desk:

1). “History Man”---a humorous history of desks through the caveman times, the Middle Ages and today. What type of desks did they use in the past?

2). “Trapped!”---John, a very bored student finds himself being chased and then trapped by his desk. Will he be alright?

3). “It Came From Within”---Sara, a “perfect student” is good at everything in school and isn't afraid to rub it in. One day she feels something warm and furry in her desk and learns a very important lesson in humility. What was the thing living in her desk?

4). “Desk Time Jokes”---A collection of classic school themed jokes.

5). “Desktec”---Readers get unprecedented access to the secret plans of Desktec about new desk technology. What will the desk of the future be like?

6). “Sue Smallton: The Incredible Shrinking Supergirl”---Sue, our super-heroine must shrink down and explore her desk to return a barrette.  What dangers will she encounter?

Pre-reading Activity

It could be fun to have students have a guided thinking session. Have them think about their desks in ways they may not have thought before. Think about all of the things they do at it; work, read, play, draw, eat, etc. How important is it to you? What if your desk could talk. What do you think would it say? What would it do if it could move? Have them share a few answers for each question. Then explain that the book you are going to read looks at desks in an imaginative way and that it can be fun to think about things in different ways.

Post-reading Activity

After the book, students can have a chance to write their own creative stories, taking an ordinary object and looking at it in a different way. They can pick an object (book, a food, classroom pet, etc.) and then use prompts inspired by the stories:

What would happen if the subject were alive/could talk?

What would that object be like in the future?

What if you could shrink down and go inside/hang out with your object? What would happen?

This would students to be able to write a story that can be funny and of interest to them and they will probably would like to share it. (I later found that the publisher's website has a review of this book that also suggests using it as a model for creative writing. It's entirely a coincidence but I'll link their page here.)

Author and Illustrator

Along with Desk Stories, Kevin O'Malley has written and illustrated the similar style book, Backpack Stories, and worked a plethora of other books such as Slugs in Love, Humpty Dumpty Egg-splodes, and the Miss Malarky book series. He currently lives in Maryland. (Source: book jacket, here, and here.) 

Reflections

This is a fun book with a variety of story styles to attract readers. These stories are short enough that a few could be shared during a story time, while also able to fill a lesson's worth of discussion in themselves. This can allow teachers to fill a whole week of read-alouds without changing books. This would definitely grab the attention of reluctant readers.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Rick and Rack and the Great Outdoors

Title: Rick and Rack and the Great Outdoors

Author and Illustrator: Ethan Long

Copyright Date: 2010

Genre: fiction (graphic novel)

Theme: animals, outdoors, friendship, humor

Grades: 1+

Summary

In three adventures, Rack the deer tries repeatedly to get his friend Rick the raccoon to enjoy outdoor activities with him, resulting in humorous consequences.

1) “The Big Fish”---Rack tries to teach Rick the joys of fishing, but Rick only finds it boring, repetitive and stinky. How will Rack fix the smell problem?

2) “Mystery Tracks”---Rack and Rick go on a hike on when they stop for a break, Rick discovers some mysterious animal tracks. Who could they belong to? A tiger? A rhino? A dragon?

3) “Canoe Leak”---Rack teaches Rick how to canoe and the importance of life jackets.

Pre-reading Activity

Before reading the story, it would be a good idea to have the students think and share with a partner any experiences they may have had in fishing, tracking or canoeing/boating. What types of things did they use? What rules did they have to follow? How did they do the activity? Then make three webs, one for each activity, with connected information. Doing this will access the students’ prior knowledge and assist those who have no experience with these activities, gain some information about them to use as context for the stories.

During the Reading Activity

Because of the three short stories in this book, you have multiple opportunities to practice skills like making predictions. Using their background knowledge and the thought webs, students can make predictions about what they think Rick and Rack will do at multiple points during each little story. As they go along, their predictions will either be correct or incorrect, and more will be created. Because the three stories are independent, you can either break them apart into three separate days of prediction practice or one big day with multiple examples. 

Post-reading Activity

Using the three stories as examples, and the easily followed format as a pattern, students may find it fun to create their own Rick and Rack story about a different outdoor activity. This book would serve as a good example to use in teaching students how to create a graphic novel, and would allow them to practice their writing skills (in writing the story and planning the graphic novel) and allow for creativity and practice with art skills.

Author and Illustrator

Ethan Long is not only a talented illustrator and author of children's books(such as Chamelia and Soup for One), he also has worked for television. Not only having created work for Scholastic and Harcourt, Long has Nickelodeon as a client of his and is the creator of the Playhouse Disney program Tasty Time With ZeFronk!. He has won many awards for his work and currently lives in Florida. (Source: here and here.)

Reflections

This is a great example of a book that can be used to teach graphic novels to younger grades. It’s well written, has an easy to follow story, is laid out in a simple way, and most importantly, it is very funny. The three stories in one book aspect, gives it great flexibility in the classroom. You have the option of spreading it out over multiple reading periods (but I guarantee your class will beg for “just one more”). I recommend this book for any younger grade classroom and will point out that the Balloon Toons series has many different graphic novels with a variety of characters that could also be useful in classroom libraries.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

Luke on the Loose

Title: Luke on the Loose

Author and Illustrator: Harry Bliss

Copyright Date: 2009

Genre: fiction (graphic novel)

Theme: city, children

Grades: K-2

Awards: Junior Library Guild Selection

Summary

A young boy named Luke went for a walk with his father in Central Park. When he notices a group of pigeons, he begins chasing after them, traveling across the city and causing all kinds of problems. Because of his running loose there is a traffic jam, dropped ice cream, and even an interrupted marriage proposal.

Where will the pigeons bring Luke to next and when will he ever stop chasing them? Read this book to find out.

Pre-reading Activity

You can tap students background knowledge on what a city is like and what they may find there, in order to help them to be better able to understand the setting of the story and identify the people, actions and objects found in the illustrations.

Post-reading Activity

In this book, there is little text, other than the dialogue and sound effects. It might be fun to try and use the illustrations in the book in order to create a picture book version of the story. This would involve students writing narration of the pictures to describe what is shown only through illustration in this format. This would help them practice proper sentence creation and sequencing without having to think of their own topics since they have the story already available to them as a scaffold. The list of city things from the pre-reading activity might serve as a useful word wall for their writing.

Author and Illustrator

Luke on the Loose is Harry Bliss’s very first graphic novel, but not his first as a cartoonist or illustrator. He has worked with award winner authors on books such as Which Would You Rather Be? and Louise, the Adventures of a Chicken, and works on the New Yorker as a cover artist and cartoonist. He currently lives in Vermont. (Source: about the author page)

Reflections

Besides being a really fun, this book is a great example to use when introducing graphic novels to students. Teachers can easily show how to approach and read a graphic novel while not worrying about difficult formatting or overly complicated stories. Students learning English would also love this book as well, being able to use the pictures as context for the words, or to still understand the story if the words prove too difficult. I highly recommend this book for those introducing the graphic novel format.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, click here.

The book's publishing company, Toon Books, has a great lesson plan using a Reader's Theater about this book, available here.