Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Focus on Relationships Between Characters

Today we are looking at how characters change throughout books, and how those character changes occur due to relationships/influences from other characters.

In Julius, the Baby of the World, older sister Lilly is jealous of new baby brother Julius. She does all sorts of "mean" things due to her feelings UNTIL she hears cousin Garland expressing distaste for the baby. Lilly suddenly springs to Julius' defense and shows her true love for him.

We talk about character motives - why did she do "mean" things - is she truly that way, or is it her jealousy? What made her change? Would she have changed if Cousin Garland hadn't appeared?

Next, they go to their independent books - I tell them to watch their character...who are they interacting with? How does that influence their behavior and choices?

We make a little sketch of our character and arrows to names of others who enter the storyline...in preparation to discover that those interactions ARE the storyline...

That's exciting!

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