voice Archives - Page 2 of 5

August 26, 2015September 1, 2015

Dragon and Captain

Dragon and Captain
by P. R. Allabach (Author) and Lucas Turnbloom (Illustrator)

Booktalk: Armed with a (toy watch) compass, a (paper-towel tube) telescope, and a (hand-drawn) map, Dragon and Captain set off on a great adventure. Dragon is a boy in pajamas and a dragon robe. Captain is a boy with a three-sided hat. But as the boys’ imaginations take over, we see them as they see themselves and the backyard as the boys see it: a dark forest, a craggy cliff, and the immense sea.

Snippet:

DRAGON: Ahoy there, fellow pirate. We’re here to, umm, inspect the ropes on this ship.

CAPTION: The pirate guard stared at them but didn’t say a word.

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Voice This picture book is illustrated as a comic. The words in the story are shown in the matching panels.

The Glossary of Comic Terms at Free Comic Book Day defines a panel this way:

The basic unit of storytelling in a comic book. Usually square or rectangular, panels frame the action of a comic book and graphic novel. The placement and construction of panels on a page can represent anything from movement to time.

This picture book comic book page has two panels. In each panel, we hear a different person speaking.

In the first panel, the word balloon tail points to the dragon. That means the dragon is speaking.

The Glossary of Comic Terms defines a word balloon as:

The text-filled “bubbles” that contain a story’s spoken dialogue.

In the manuscript, spoken dialogue looks like this:

DRAGON: Ahoy there, fellow pirate. We’re here to, umm, inspect the ropes on this ship.

The words in the second panel on this page are in a box. That means it is a caption.

Acording to the Glossary of Comic Terms, captions are:

Text-filled boxes that typically narrate a comics story.

When you see a captions box, the narrator is speaking. In the manuscript, captions look like this:

CAPTION: The pirate guard stared at them but didn’t say a word.

Most of the action in a comic is shown in the art. Captions are only used if the narrator needs to give readers more information. This caption shows that time passes while the two boys wait for an answer–and that the answer was silence.

August 20, 2015September 1, 2015

If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!

If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!
by Elise Parsley (Author/Illustrator)

Booktalk: If your teacher tells you to bring something from nature for show-and-tell, she does not want you to bring an alligator! But nothing will stop Magnolia, who’s determined to have the best show-and-tell of all–until her reptilian rapscallion starts getting her into some major trouble. Now it’s up to Magnolia to find a way to send this troublemaker home–but what could possibly scare an alligator away?

Snippet:
You’ll tell how alligators are super big,
and how alligators have seventy-four super sharp teeth,
and how alligators are super tough.
It’s a fact.
They’re strong and they’re tough and they aren’t scared of anything except other alligators . . .

and humans.

TURN THE PAGE

BOOGA
BOOGA
BOOGA

Six Traits Mini Lesson

Trait: Voice When Magnolia brings her alligator to school, he causes LOTS of trouble. This cautionary tale is written in second person, the you voice, so that the readers will NOT do the same.

The book title is the first clue. The word you is the second word in the title:

If You Ever Want to Bring an Alligator to School, Don’t!

As the school day progesses, readers see all of the trouble that the alligator causes. Things get worse and worse and WORSE! Then finally, it’s time for show-and-tell, the reason Magnolia brought the alligator to school in the first place.

On the show and tell page, Magnolia explains the process to the readers:

You’ll tell how alligators are super big,
and how alligators have seventy-four super sharp teeth,
and how alligators are super tough.

Trait: Word Choice Then Magnolia repeats her description of the alligator:

It’s a fact.
They’re strong and they’re tough and they aren’t scared of anything except other alligators . . .

and humans.

Notice the pause between alligators . . . and humans?

These word choices set up the page turn.

After all of the trouble that the alligator causes Magnolia (after the page turn), she has the last word . . .

BOOGA
BOOGA
BOOGA

(And yes, after she scares the alligator, Magnolia does end up in the principal’s office! No good deed goes unpunished!)