January 7, 2013 in Book Club Possibility, Chapter Books, Elementary Educators, Lyons Maggie, Making Personal Connections, Reading Skills Tags: character traits, dragon stories, fantasy books for young readers, funny chapter books
*Chapter book, fantasy, for ages 7 to 9 (maybe 10)
*Young dragon as main character
*Rating: Dewi and the Seeds of Doom is a cute, humorous chapter book that kids will really enjoy–especially if they like dragons, adventure, and fantasy.
Short, short summary: Dewi the dragon realizes something funny is going on at Castle Gloomsgor with Baron Doom when Dewi discovers a sick rat that just fell out of the sky. Eventually, he discovers that the Baron is doing some strange experiments with corn and has some evil plans to take over the farming industry and make a lot of money! With the help of Dewi’s toad friend, Jones, he tries to put an end to the experiments and the evil ways of Baron Doom. A quirky cast of characters rounds out this book, along with riddles kids will be repeating after they finish the last page.
So, what do I do with this book?
1. Dewi uses deductive reasoning and problem solving techniques in this novel. How does he figure out where the rat came from? How does he decide to find out why the rat was sick? And so on. Discuss with students problem/solution story element, using this book. It is an easy one for students to see. There’s an overall problem of Baron Doom, but there are also several smaller problems that pop up along the way.
2. Jokes and riddles can actually help students with parts of speech and vocabulary. Often times a word that has more than one meaning will be used in a joke or there’s a play on words. In this chapter book, the characters often tell jokes. Ask students to explain why a riddle/joke is funny. What makes it funny? Can students try to write a similar joke?
3. Dewi and Jones are both very brave, but what other character traits do they possess? They are both very strong characters, but they are unique in their own way. Ask students to make a list of each of their character traits, how they are alike, how they are different, and what makes them great friends.
Source:
http://margodill.com/blog/2013/01/07/dewi-and-the-seeds-of-doom-by-maggie-lyons/
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