Graphic Novel for Tweens: The Doppleganger Chronicles: The First Escape

The Doppleganger Chronicles: The First Escape is the story of twins, Sadie and Saskia Dopple, trouble-makers of Isambard Dunstan's School for Wayward Children.  Saskia is adopted by Muzz Elliot (a friend of the orphanage), splitting the twins apart and sending sister Sadie on a quest to find her. Sadie and her friend from the orphanage, Erik, begin uncovering a mystery as they seek out Saskia that could threaten their lives.
This book is a young adult graphic novel. It has been refered to as an illustra-novella- a mix of graphic novel, comic, full page text, full page illustrations. I thought this format was entertaining and would intrigue young adult readers. It seemed the illustrations and the content were very relavent tween's interests. I haven't read a lot of graphic novels or comics but I wasn't overly impressed with the illustrations. They weren't bad, just not anything special. The story line was intriguing but sometimes bizzare. If your reader enjoys Lemony Snickett's A tale of Unfortunate Events, there is a good chance she will enjoy these too.
This book was published by Tyndale and is labeled as a Christian book.  The christian theme is pretty loosely tied to the book. There is a "companion" who visits Saskia- this may represent the holy spirit?? or an angel? In this first book, there really isn't a lot of spiritual depth to the book.
Also, the book itself is kind of "dark" so I would recommend parents reading it first before passing it along to their children.
I was provided a free review copy from the publisher in exchange for my honest opinions in  this review. No other compensation was given.

Writing Prompts for Favorite Fairy Tale

In looking through some binders of stuff from college, I found a few fun ways to extend the fairy tale Cinderella. I wish I knew where this list orginated. I found the list in notes from a class. I don't even know which class!! I think these ideas would be lots of fun, but they needed some updates. At the end of the post, I have some updated ways to extend the story of Cinderella. I'd love if you leave a comment and share your ideas.

After reading the fairy tale Cinderella:

Write a letter to "Dear Abby" from Cinderella while she was a Cinder girl and then create Abby's reply.
Create an invitation to the ball.
Write a newspaper headline and article for the ball from a tabloid.
Write and illustrate directions to the palace.
Write a script for a play or TV program based on the story.
Create an advertisement for glass slippers.
Write a thank you note to the Fairy Godmother.
Plan a bridal shower for Cinderella.
Write a menu and recipes for a royal wedding.
Develop and write a legal arguement claiming bullying of Cinderella by her step-mothers and step-sisters.
Create a wedding album of the wedding.
Ok, reader friends. Here is your writing assignment:
Write a tweet from the prince after he found the glass slipper.
Write a status update from Cinderella after she got home from the ball.

I can't wait to see your creativity shine!

If you are looking for other ways to use writing to extend the reading of favorite tales, check out this post from Layers of Learning. The authors share prompts such as:
What if the wolf had really been the good guy in Little Red Riding Hood? 
How would Goldilocks and the Three Giraffes go?
and more!

Using Prop Baskets to Introduce Fairy Tales

Welcome to a week of Fairy Tale magic. There is a royal wedding this week and when I think of princes and princesses, I tend to think of the "Happily Ever After" of some of our best loved fairy tales.

When  beginning a Fairy Tale unit, it is a good idea to determine the knowledge children have about Fairy Tales. One way to determine this is to create prop baskets.

Tell your child  that someoneleft some belongings at your house (or in the classroom) and have them try to guess who the mystery person might be. I usually start with...

Cleaning rags, gloves, wand, satin, tiara. (A small plastic doll shoe would look great in here too!)

You guessed it, Cinderella.

You might try another pretty easy one...

Straw, sticks, and bricks.

Yep, the three little pigs.
If you're having fun with it, go on.



Cow, magic beans, golden egg, bean stalk


Did you guess Jack and the Bean Stalk?

Did you know?
Fairy Tales were given their name when the tales were put into books. The publishers put fairies on the front of books to make them more appealing to children. They were actually just folklore of countries.
I don't know if any of these books have fairies on the front cover, but I think your child might find some of them appealing.


Cinderella by Barbara McClintock

The Three Little Pigs by James Marshall


 You Read to Me, I'll Read to You: Very Short Fairy Tales to Read Together (suggested by Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns)


 Goldilocks and the Three Bears by Jan Brett



If you'd like a twist on the more traditional fairy tales, check out (These are for older readers, not toddlers like my boys. You really need to have a background on the fairy tales before you'll "get" these books. Plus, some of them might be too scary for the boys :)
Kate and the Beanstalk by Mary Pope Osborne



The Wolf's Story: What Really Happened to Little Red Riding Hood by Toby Forward

The True Story of the Three Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka

The Frog Prince Continued by Jon Scieszka

A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz

 Previously by Allan Ahlberg

For using fairy tales with the toddler/ preschooler crowd, you might have to think outside the book. Check out these examples from The Book Chook. You could try watching a Disney movie of your favorite tale. I love the Disney version of Cinderella! You will also find a ton of links to fairy tale resources on Youtube.
We also have learned the basic fairy tales by watching Blues Clues and Barney. They often reinact them and make them funny instead of scary!

I'm linking this up:

Does your child have a favorite Fairy Tale?

Egg Hunt Scribbling

I was recently offered these free Pooh Coloring Sheets from Disney in honor of Pooh returning to theaters this summer (July 15th).  The coloring sheets are free to download for all of my readers so go check them out!

Using these color sheets, Logan and I practiced early writing skills of scribbling. We have just started the Handwriting without Tears program and so I used some of their methods.
I began by telling Logan we were going on an "Egg hunt'.
"Where have you seen eggs lately? What color were they?"
Then we looked at the coloring sheets.
"Let's find the eggs" *point*
Then I demonstrated scribbling.

When you scribble with your child, have him aim the crayon and put it on the egg. The little finger of the hand that is holding the crayon should rest on the paper. Have the child use the other hand to help hold the paper. Don't lift the crayon or hand when scribbling, just wiggle and scribble.
"Let's scribble eggs." *Put the crayon on the egg and scribble.



Oh, and don't look at his grip. Like I said, we JUST started HWT (and he is only two ;)

 Of course, if you have children competent in coloring, you can just give them these cute sheets for coloring fun.
These coloring sheets go great with the book, Pooh's Easter Basket. This book was featured last week on A Mommy's Adventures. It deals with colors so it's perfect for coloring time.
You can also print out the pictures in color. I printed out each picture and create pooh puzzles for Logan. I glued them to old cereal boxes and cut apart. A fun way to reuse cereal boxes and a great way to celebrate Earth Day this week.

I'm linking this up. This week I am featured on It's Playtime! link up. I was so excited when Jamie from hands on: as we grow notified me that she had picked my Easter Egg Pick Up baby activity to include in a whole slew of baby activities.

You can see this weeks play ideas here. There are usually close to 100 play ideas on this link up. Pretty cool.


I'll also be linking up here:

Here Comes Peter Cottontail, Hopping Down the Tissue Trail

Since this week is Earth Day, JDaniel4'sMom and The Activity Mom are hosting a Tissue Box Challenge. The idea is to reuse a tissue box in a fun way with your kids.  Who doesn't love a great challenge?
In keeping with the Easter theme, I decided to help Logan transform a tissue box into Peter Cottontail!

We began by painting our box white. Of course, you could paint yours any color you desire for your rabbit.
Just a tip, don't leave the tissue box outside to "dry" on a windy day. Our rabbit collected all sorts of undesirable objects on his backside. We had to fix him up by gluing on white paper.
On the next day (after our rabbit dried and we repaired him), we created the bunny's face, ears, and feet. You will need 2 circles for the face and ears. I used white craft foam. Paper should work equally well. Another idea would be to use two small white paper plates.

On one circle, draw lines like this:

When you cut it out, you will have 2 ears and a bow tie. (Although, I couldn't decide where to put my bowtie so I left it off of the bunny.)
You will also need pink for the inside of the ears (or you can just color the inside of the ear pink).
You will need 2 pink rectangles for the whiskers and a pink heart shape for the nose.

Crisscross the pink rectangles to make the whiskers and glue the nose on top.
Add eyes and a mouth.
Glue the bunny's face above the tissue box opening.
For the bunny's feet, you will need to make a shape similar to a boomerang.

A cottonball glued to the backside will make a cute little cotton tail.

To create the bunny's pink belly, use pink Easter grass. Better yet, get some used pink construction paper and run it through a shredder to reuse paper. Thanks for Teach Preschool for the tip on making Easter grass out of construction paper.
Put the easter grass in the opening. Add some eggs if you desire.

Here comes Peter Cottontail!
Go check out other uses for a common tissue box at the Tissue Box challenge.

I'm also linking up here: