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Lesson Plan: Write Your Own Urban Legend
AIM: Students will create an original story as an homage to a classic urban legend.
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The Dark by Lemony Snicket and Jon Klassen Analysis
The Dark is a picture book written by Daniel Handler, illustrated by Jon Klassen. A boy faces his fear of the dark in an archetypal dream house. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE DARK? Shortcoming/Need Psychological Shortcoming: “Laszlo was afraid of the dark.” In children’s books, characters don’t need a moral shortcoming. (In other words, a child character…
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Some Things Are Scary by Florence Parry Heide and Robert Osborn Analysis
Some Things Are Scary is a favourite from my own childhood, and now that my daughter loves it just as much, I appreciate its timelessness. This book would make an excellent mentor text for a classroom of young writers. They might use the structure to create their own story about scary things. I only have the…
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Blackdog by Levi Pinfold Analysis
Anyone who has ever seen a huge unfriendly dog standing right outside their glass door will know how frightening it can be. Pinfold takes that fear and now we have Blackdog.
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Why is the horror genre so popular?
We like to be scared. Rather, fear sends a rush of adrenaline, and we like that. Scratch that. Maybe it’s the relief we feel once the rush of adrenaline is over. For the same reason, social media can be addictive. That rush when we hear a reply coming back from a tweet? That rush is…
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The Mechanical Behaviour Of Fussbudgets In Comedy
Fussbudgets, sticklers, officious types, whatever you want to call them — comedy gold. An essential component of the fussbudget is mechanical behaviour. We’ve all had run-ins with them, which makes the comedy aspect universal. MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR ON SCREEN This gag plays out especially well visually, so you’ll see it in many films and TV shows.…
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Dollhouse Symbolism In Storytelling
Dollhouses in stories fall into a number of main categories: Through the window, the benches are snowcapped, stippled with pigeon prints. Winter came early to New York. The apartments across the way glow shades of yellow. Figures move from room to room. They look like doll-people. I want to collect their love seats and kitchen…
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Maps In Children’s Books
Is there anything more satisfying than a fictional literary map? Apparently not, for some people. Cf. A defence of maps at the start of books. This is a light-hearted conversation that took place at Radio New Zealand after the afternoon magazine-show host said he didn’t like maps at the start of books. Jesse Mulligan’s argument…
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The Beach As Setting In Storytelling
Across all forms of storytelling the beach functions as an alternative, liberating space, almost a heterotopia. The beach is also a liminal space, partly because it forms the boundary between land and sea. The beach as a tourist destination is also a liminal space because visitors can “enjoy experiences and feelings that are often repressed…
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The Mouse and His Child by Russell Hoban
This middle grade novel features talking animals, especially mice, toys and doll’s houses. The Mouse and His Child is no Velveteen Rabbit, however. As Margaret Blount says, The Mouse and His Child defies classification, and is therefore of interest to critics and children’s literature enthusiasts: Russell Hoban’s The Mouse and His Child (1969) is such a strange,…
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The History And Influence Of Cinderella Fairy Tale Analysis
“Cinderella” is a classic rags-to-riches tale and can be found, written straight or subverted, throughout the history of literature. It’s worth pointing out that Cinderella wasn’t truly from ‘rags’. She was related to middle class people, so was at least middle class herself. No one wants to hear about actual starvation, rickets and whatnot at…
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A Rumour Of Otters
A Rumour of Otters by Deborah Savage is an out-of-print New Zealand book, published 1984, written by an author from Pennsylvania. I remember there was a class set of this book in my high school, studied by Year 9 students. I wonder if there’s still a box of them in the Burnside High School resource…
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The Tale Of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter Analysis
As Marjery Hourihan points out in Deconstructing the Hero, Peter Rabbit is basically an Odyssean story. A male hero goes out, has an adventure, faces death and then arrives home, changed. Beatrix Potter was following a long tradition of storytelling when she wrote this one.