Fairy Tale Project: Puss in Boots

July's fairy tale project centered on Puss in Boots. The Kid loved this story so much that even though I only meant for her to choose about 3 of the versions I picked up from the library, she read all 5! Here are the versions we read:

• Puss in Boots translated by Malcolm Arthur, illustrated by Fred Marcellino
• Puss in Boots retold and illustrated by Steve Light
• Puss in Boots retold and illustrated by Paul Galdone
• Puss in Boots retold and illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
• Puss in Cowboy Boots by Jan Huling and Phil Huling

I note that there is a DreamWorks movie named Puss in Boots. However, that character of Puss isn't really related to the classic story but rather a prequel to the Shrek movies. I my daughter wasn't so very sensitive to violence in movies, we probably would have watched it anyway!

She would talk about even small differences between versions, like which title Puss gave his master. We spent a lot of time appreciating the illustrations in the books - I especially liked Fred Marcellino's and The Kid was especially drawn to the swirls in Steve Light's. By the time we got to the narration, she had to spread it out over two sessions because she gave such a detailed account of the story.

The skill I chose to work on with her for this narrative was chunking a story into "parts". Because she gave such a detailed retelling, I asked if she wanted to do multiple illustrations and make a full Puss in Boots book of her own. She did, so then we talked about dividing up her narrative onto separate pages, one "chunk" of related narrative for each picture - kind of like the forerunner to understanding dividing a long story into chapters. Along with this, we discussed how stories are set up, the action builds, there is a climax, and then things are wrapped up.