Mechanics & Literature: September 2021
Are you ready for adventure?
This month’s Dart, Arrow, Boomerang, and Slingshot circle the globe to bring you dynamic characters, poignant plot twists, famous stories, and settings you’re not likely to forget, all as a means of exploring:
- writing,
- mechanics,
- and literary devices.
[This post contains Amazon affiliate links. When you click on those links to make purchases, Brave Writer receives compensation at no extra cost to you. Thank you!]
Rickshaw Girl by Mitali Perkins
In this award-winning novel for readers in grades 2-5 illustrated by Jamie Hogan, Naima must find a way to save her mother’s golden bangle — and fix her father’s rickshaw. Booklist said this “lively, moving book has surprises that continue to the end,” Kirkus promised that “Naima’s story will be relished by students and teachers alike,” and the Cooperative Center for Children’s Books picked it as a must-read global title for children. ~mitaliperkins.com
Get the Dart.
Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories by Leon Garfield
**NOTE: We’ll read these stories from the book: Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, A Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Julius Caesar.
How to introduce children to Shakespeare, not just to the stories behind the plays but to the richness of Shakespeare’s language and the depth of his characters: That’s the challenge that Leon Garfield, no slouch as a wordsmith himself, sets out to meet in his monumental and utterly absorbing Shakespeare Stories. Here twenty-one of the Bard’s plays are refashioned into stories that are true to the wit, the humor, the wisdom, the sublime heights, the terrifying depths, and above all the poetry of their great originals. Throughout, Garfield skillfully weaves in Shakespeare’s own words, accustoming young readers to language and lines that might at first seem forbiddingly unfamiliar. Leon Garfield’s Shakespeare Stories is an essential distillation—a truly Shakespearean tribute to Shakespeare’s genius and a delight for children and parents alike.
Get the Arrow.
The Beast Player by Nahoko Uehashi (Translated by Cathy Hirano)
Elin’s family has an important responsibility: caring for the fearsome water serpents that form the core of their kingdom’s army. So when some of the creatures mysteriously die, Elin’s mother is sentenced to death as punishment. With her last breath, she manages to send her daughter to safety.
Alone and far from home, Elin soon discovers that she can communicate with both the terrifying water serpents and the majestic flying beasts that guard her queen. This skill gives her great power, but it also involves her in deadly plots that could cost her life. Can she save herself and prevent her beloved beasts from being used as tools of war? Or is there no escaping the terrible battles to come?
Get the Boomerang.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
A Tale of Two Cities is an 1859 historical novel by Charles Dickens, set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution. The novel tells the story of the French Doctor Manette, his 18-year-long imprisonment in the Bastille in Paris and his release to live in London with his daughter Lucie, whom he had never met. The story is set against the conditions that led up to the French Revolution and the Reign of Terror. ~Amazon
Get the Slingshot.
