There has been a lot of conversations this summer about The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. At our first staff meeting our librarian and another fourth grade teacher were just gushing about this new book also. Then Mr. Schu posted Ivan had passed and I thought I need to read this book. I was also hoping to spark an interest in my fourth grader too. What I discovered as I was reading, I was reading like a writer. Lines of this text just made me stop and think about the language choice. It made me realize the careful craft of choosing words to create images, emotions, and thinking. Since there has been so much buzz about this heartfelt story I thought I would share the lines that struck me most written by Katherine Applegate.
-"Humans waste words. The toss them like banana peels and leave them to rot."
-"Humans are clever indeed. They spin pink clouds you can eat. They build domains with flat waterfalls."
-"But even though I draw the same things over and over again, I never get bored with my art."
-""Memories are precious," Stella adds. "They help tell us who we are.""
-"Because she remembers everything, Stella knows many stories. I like colorful tales with black beginnings and stormy middles and cloudless blue-sky endings. But any story will do."
You pulled some beautiful lines. I am going to share your post with a writing teacher friend. I think the way you read books is the way our students should be reading books. Why certain lines speak to us or cause us to pause is interesting to think and talk about.
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