Thursday, September 6, 2012

The Weedle on the Needle

                                        by Steven Cosgrove, illustrated by Robin James

This Post is Dedicated to my Very Smart and Very dear nephew who lives in Seattle Washington, Johnny I Love You!

            For my book talk today I choose A Serendipity Book classic, The Weedle on the Needle.  For those of you that are not familiar with the Serendipity collection allow me to introduce you, this collection consisted of well over fifty books.  They were written by Stephen Cosgrove and illustrated by Robin James (sight links at bottom of the page).  The stories featured lovable animals or fantasy creatures with the story centered on a moral theme.

            The Weedle on the Needle that my book talk is about is the original 1974 publication.  This book has been re-released and is different from the original version, personally I enjoy the way the original story reads and the way it teaches the child to accept and accommodate the many people and creatures we have in our world.  The book is dedicated to Seattle, Washington.  The re-released copy is readily available at The Space Needle.

            Now, for a short summary of this wonderful story; a weedle lived in the Northwest.  One day a ship full of men arrived to settle Seattle.  While they were building they began to whistle.  Well the whistling hurt the poor Weedle’s ears.  So the Weedle moves far away from the bay of Seattle to Mt. Rainier.  He is finally able to sleep.  He sleeps for many years.  When he wakes the men have built right up to the edge of Mt. Rainier and were still whistling.  So the Weedle decides to stop the whistling.  He chooses The Space Needle to put his plan into action.  So the people and the Weedle have to work together to solve the whistling problem. 

            I did not give very good details at the end of the summary because the end of a book should never be given away, it should always be explored by its reader.

           

How can this book be used in the classroom?

            The Weedle on The Needle would make a wonderful and light introduction to a social studies unit about Seattle, Washington.  It would also be useful for explaining land marks such as The Space Needle.  I really love the way that this book is written it has strong paragraphs and is not just a short read.  It will challenge students to infer about what the Weedle is going to do and what the Mayor is going to do for the Weedle. 

http://stephencosgrove.com/
 http://www.robinjames.net/

5 comments:

  1. The one thing I really loved about this book was its illustrations. THey really sttod out to me when the class was looking at all the boks today. It is interesting to me how this character looks just like the Lorax from Dr Suess. It sounds like a cute read. I think your ideas on how to use it in the classroom sound great. I personally dont know much about the Seattle area and I think it is important for children to discover that their is so many different exciting sites in the country they live. It opens up their minds to exploration and advetnure. I also loved how you brought in the little stuffed animal with your book. That is another great thing that young kids would love. Great work I would love to check this book oiut for myself.
    EnRica Madrid

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  2. I agree with EnRica! This book is fantastic for showing kids what our country has to offer. I love that you told us of Serendipity books because they also seem like they have a lot to offer the classroom. I've never heard of this book but it sounds cute. I would be excited to share it with my future class. Thanks!

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  3. Your blog is coming along so well! I love your suggested activities...all really nice for classroom conversations!! Talk, talk, talk!!

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  4. This blog was so great!! Everything was easy to read and it flowed really nice!! I loved your book talk on this book, and I thought it was so cute that you brought in the little stuffed animal that you had. It was a great book talk and I liked the classroom activities you included in the blog. Good job!

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  5. I love how your blog is coming along. I thought it was very helpful that you put how it can be used in the classroom. I think kids can also learn how collaboration and helping each other is very important as the people and Weedle did in the book!

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