Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Sticky Burr: Adentures in Burrwood Forest

By: John Lechner
Ages: 6-10

Sticky Burr is an interesting graphic novel about a burr and difficulties that he deals with.  Sticky Burr has problems with a bunch of bullies in his village and is made to feel useless.  He ends up getting stuck to a variety of objects and animals until he is finally saved.  While Sticky Burr is trying to escape a bunch of bees, he ends up at the Maze Tree.  After this, Sticky Burr ends up making a variety of friends and being the hero of his village.  Periodically, throughout the book, the author stops to define different vocabulary that he uses.  This is an entertaining and educational book for children of all ages. 

Theme: The is a great book to teach students about bullying by showing students how to be the bigger person.  It is also a sciencetific book to teach students about burrs.

About the Author:
John Lecher is a writer, illustrator, animator, musician, puppeteer, and interactive designer.  He was one of seven children who grew up in a creative environment.  He attended Carnegie Mellon University where he studied art and creative writing.  He has a twitter and a blog so that fans of his book can follow him. 

Pre-Reading Activities:
Students will predict what they think will happen in this book.  The cover of the book provides a couple small pictures of different things that occur through the book which are great for predictions.  Also, students can brainstorm what they think a stick burr is. 

Post-Reading Activities: 
Students should be encouraged to write their own epilogue.  After students come up with a new story about what happens to Sticky Burr, they can make it their own book and share it with the class. 

1 comment:

  1. I love your idea of having students write an epilogue for the book. It would definitely get them thinking about what Sticky Burr and his friends are up to. Also, it would be great for them to share them with one another just to show how different each story would be. I really think the students would enjoy writing it because they would actually be doing it as a cartoon. A great way to trick students into being interested in writing!

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