
Sylvester and the Magic Pebble
By: William Steig
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Children's Publishing
Copyright date: April 1, 1988
Pages: 32
Genre: Fantasy
Grade Level: K-3rd
Summary: Sylvester the donkey finds a wish-granting pebble but on his way home a lion frightens him and he makes an unsuspected wish and is turned into a rock. A search party is sent out to find Sylvester but no one suspects him to be a rock. Will Sylvester be stuck as a rock for the rest of his days?
Classroom use: I would use this book in my classroom to teach a social skills lesson. It would be a great book to teach kids to, "Be careful what you wish for!". I would use it in collaboration with teaching writing. I would start by having students write down a wish and why they would make that wish. I would then read the book, we would have a discussion about it, and the lesson of "Being careful what you wish for". Then I would ask students about their wishes and if they would like to change it. Could the wish they previously wrote down have any regular consequences? If so, what are they and how could you change it to not have negative consequences?
Rating:
***
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**
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*
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-
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Comments
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Plot
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Plot is well developed with a sequence of events. The
events are in good logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.
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Plot contains a sequence of events. The events are in
order but the conflict is not clear or does not contain a clear resolution.
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There are events but they are not in good chronological
order. The climax and resolution are lacking or not present.
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Not addressed
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*** Plot is well developed with events that are in good
logical order. There is a clear conflict and resolution.
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Characters
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Characters are well developed with clear roles and contribute to the
story. Reader is able to personally connect with the character(s).
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Characters have clear roles within the story. Reader is not able to
connect with the character(s).
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Character(s) are present but do not have clear roles. Reader is not able
to connect with character(s).
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No characters developed
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*** Main character is well developed and all character’s roles
contribute to the story.
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Style and
Language
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Book contains precise vocabulary, figurative language,
and or dialogue. When dialogue is used it is effective and not distracting.
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Book contains precise vocabulary and/or figurative
language. When dialogue is used it is distracting.
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Book contains very little precise vocabulary and no
figurative language or dialogue.
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Book contains no precise vocabulary or figurative
language. No dialogue is used.
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** When dialogue is used it contributes to the story. It
doesn’t contain much precise vocabulary.
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Theme
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There is a clear theme and it is easily identifiable by the story.
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There is a theme but it is a little more difficult to identify.
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The theme is almost impossible to identify.
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There is no theme.
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*** There is a clear theme, “Be careful for what you wish for”
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