A Favorite October Read

This time of the year kids love to hear spooky stories. The Ghost-Eye Tree by Bill Martin, Jr. is one of my favorites because it's not a Halloween book, but it has the feel of being scary. This story is told by a young boy who lives out in the country and is afraid of a spooky looking tree on the way to town. Most of the story is a conversation between his big sister and him, with all the usual bickering and picking on that older siblings dish out to younger siblings.

Usually, the first time I share this story I read it aloud without showing any pictures, not even the cover. I ask students to picture what this place looks like and what this "ghost-eye tree" may look like. As I read, I stop often for students to talk about what they are picturing. We list words that help them visualize the scenes. At the end of the story, I hand students a 5" x 7" piece of brown construction paper and a blank piece of drawing paper. They have to tear the brown piece into what they think this "ghost-eye tree" looks like, glue it on the page, and then add drawings to complete the picture of their favorite part, including the characters.

The next day I put up all their pictures and re-read the story showing them the pictures. We revisit the chart of words from the day before and talk about how authors use language to paint pictures. We sort the words by parts of speech to get students to realize that adjectives are not the only ones that help us paint pictures, vivid verbs can create images for us too.

This book is, also, good to compare and contrast the characters. We create a chart to record things each character says and actions that give us clues to what they are like and to how they feel about each other.

This is a mentor text we revisit for writing, as well. To remind students to paint pictures with their words, I'll re-read some of their favorite parts as a mini-lesson before writing and ask students to attempt a sentence or paragraph in their writing that day that paints a picture.

Another book I've used in a similar way for visualizing is Owl Moon by Jane Yolen.