Fractured Fairy Tales for Middle School

If you know any middle schoolers who love(d) fairy tales, Vivian Vande Velde’s Cloaked in Red is a must read. She has fractured the story of Little Red Riding Hood eight times. Three of my favorites are “Little Red Riding Hood’s Family”, “Deems the Wood Gatherer”, and “Why Willy and His Brother Want Ever Amount to Anything”.  Her clever twists and turns include werewolves, vampires, and hints of other fairytale characters. This book is a great writing jump start. After reading a few aloud to your class and talking about the changes in the story, have your students choose one of their favorite fairy tales to rewrite, I mean fracture.

Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher

Hello, Harvest Moon is the first picture book of Ralph Fletcher’s that I remember reading. One fall day when shelving books, I picked it up to read thinking the title sounded like a good seasonal read. And it is. I did not realize he was the author until I read the book, fell in love with his lyrical prose, turned to the cover to see who the author was and was delighted to find that it was Ralph Fletcher. Already a fan of his “how to write” books, I was delighted to find an example of his “creative” writing. Kate Kiesler’s oil paintings in autumn colors complement Fletcher’s prose and make Hello, Harvest Moon a perfect read aloud to introduce the fall season and its descriptive attributes to kindergarteners and first graders.