 Janet Taylor Lisle was reading from her Newbery-winning novel Afternoon of the Elves. |
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"Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be an elf?" Hillary asked Sara-Kate. "I mean, how would it feel to be so strange and little?"
Sara-Kate's eyes jumped to Hillary's face.
"What do you mean 'strange and little'?" she inquired sharply. "If you were an elf you wouldn't feel strange or little. You'd feel like a normal, healthy elf."
"I guess I'd better tell you something right now, before we go any further." Her voice was soft but forceful. "Nobody insults these elves and gets away with it. Not while I'm here. Nobody insults them by mistake, either," she added, seeing that Hillary was about to protest again. "Before you say anything, you've got to put yourself in the position of the elf. That way you don't make mistakes, okay?" |
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 "I am proud of how I wrote that," she told the fifth graders, "and of how it still makes sense today." |
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| Stories and mysteries part two |
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 Until fifth grade, students are discouraged from wearing Halloween costumes to school.
I made the circle of sticks. |
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 One happy result of that policy is that students find richer ways to recognize the holiday.
She put the leaf it. |
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 It's my costume! |
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| Stories and mysteries part three |
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 One of the first questions: "I didn't like the ending. I guess my question is... why did you pick that ending?" |
 For Gordon students familiar with the book, the question wasn't surprising. Mrs. Lisle's plot hinged on a number of mysteries and ambiguities which remain unresolved at the end of the book. |
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 "I have tons of mail," she said, picking up a stack of papers, "from irate children complaining 'You dropped us off a cliff!'" |
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 "How many of you are angry about that?" |
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| Stories and mysteries part four |
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 Fifth graders can wear costumes to school on Halloween. |
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 But that does not quench their desire to make their own costumes. |
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| Stories and mysteries part five |
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 Throughout her visit, Mrs. Lisle was careful to sidestep questions that were trolling for, as she called them, "facts outside the book" that would clear up unresolved issues. |
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 Raised in an age when DVDs come with alternate endings and authors constantly stray "outside the book," the students kept coming after her. |
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 She'd parry with"I don't know better than you," or, maybe, "There seems to be some indication that..." or "We as readers are left to think..." |
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 The only thing she would confirm for certain was that there would be no sequel to answer all of their questions. |
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| Stories and mysteries part six |
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 This year, Kindergarteners saw their Halloween energy redirected into a lesson on writing and collaboration. |
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 Two Kindergarten parents came in to explain how they wrote the children's book All Hallow's Eve: the story of the Halloween fairy. |
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 At the heart of their presentation was some improvised authoring; she strung together the children's rhymes... |
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 .while he scrambled to illustrate the verses. |
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 The results, which included, A cat with a rat hat sat on a mat and his friend a fat bat gave his hat a pat, had the whole room in stitches. |
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 This was a Halloween that not every student had seen before - one of sharing, laughter, family and creative play.
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| Stories and mysteries part seven |
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 Many stories end with a major chord.
You have a feeling that you know what the author's going to do with everyone, and at the end you get to watch it all come together and it is very satisfying.
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 I decided to end in a minor chord.
You don't find out what exactly the author was up to all along, so you have to reflect, on your own, on the complications.
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 What is true?
What is real?
What is rumor?
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 How much can you tell from your senses and to what degree do you go underneath to find out the answers to your questions?
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 I do think the story adds up, in a way that maybe some people will understand... |
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 even if I never do explain it. |
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