Children's literature series - Magic beach

Magic beach

by Alison Lester

source: booktopia.com.au

This week I’m reviewing Magic Beach by another popular Australian children’s author/illustrator - Alison Lester. This is a nostalgic story written in verse about childhood adventures by the seaside. There is a predictable rhyming structure, and the author alternates each experience at the beach with ‘fantasy’ scenes. At the end of the book the reader is led to believe that these fantasy scenes could be the children’s dreams inspired by their day at the beach. This book can be used in the classroom for so many different purposes and the fun, detailed illustrations will keep students engaged as they notice new details with each reading.

Discussions, teachable moments and tasks within the classroom:

• Repetition
  Discuss: Alison Lester repeats a phrase in the text. Why?
  Teachable moment: Repetition (same phrase is said over and over in quick succession) is used to emphasise an idea.
  Extension: Read the text through, omitting the repeated phrases. What impact does omitting the repeated phrase have?
• Structure and rhyming
  Discuss: Identify some rhymes within the text; Where do the rhymes occur?
  Learning experience: Highlight rhymes in the text; What is the pattern (beach scenes - A-A-B-C-D-B; fantasy scenes - A-B-C-B; NB: beach scenes change to A-A-B-C-B halfway through)?
  Discuss: Why do you think the author has written this rhyming structure?
• Visual literacy
  Discuss: Framing. What do you notice about the framing of the pictures within the text (the fantasy scenes have images within a circle frame)? Why do you think Alison Lester has done this?
  Teachable moment: Framing refers to how the images and words have been separated (or cut off), usually with a border.
• Narrative
  Discuss: Alison Lester’s Magic Beach juxtaposes a family’s adventures at the beach with fantasy scenes (presumed to be the children’s dreams).
  Learning experience: Write a narrative of the story of Princess Belinda’s rescuing of little Prince James.
  Teachable moment: Classic narratives are imaginative texts consisting of a beginning (orientation), middle (complication) and an end (resolution). In the orientation, the writer introduces the characters and setting to the audience. Also in the orientation, a problem is ‘foreshadowed’ (the reader learns about something which is not yet a problem but becomes a problem later on). In the complication, the problem arises. The characters take action to resolve the problem. Sometimes new problems arise as one problem is resolved. In the resolution, the problem is finally resolved and the story comes to an end.
  Extension: Students write narratives inspired by other fantasy scenes from the text. 
• Vivid verbs: Identify some of the verbs used by the author.
  Teachable moment: vivid verbs are ‘descriptive’ verbs. For example: instead of ‘something to *eat* the bait, the author has written ‘something to *nibble* the bait’; instead of ‘we *lie* on the jettery’, ‘we *laze* on the jetty’, etc.
  Learning experience: Identify other vivid verbs within the text (examples: shrieking, thundering, plunging, peering, darting, etc)
  Extension: substitute some of the vivid verbs for more common verbs. How does this affect the meaning?
• Interesting noun groups
  Discuss: The author has used interesting noun groups by using rich descriptive language.
  Learning experience: Identify interesting noun groups the author uses (examples: *invincible* castles, *clear, warm* pools, *cargo of* pearls, *convoys of* pearls)
  Extension: remove some of the descriptive language. How does this affect the meaning?
• Write a description (6-8 sentences).
  Discuss: Select one of the detailed illustrated beach scenes. What do you see (nouns)? What is happening (verbs)?
  Learning experience: Label everything you see (nouns) with post-it notes. Add interesting adjectives to describe these nouns. Using a different coloured post-it, label what you see happening (verb groups - can be vivid verbs).
  Write a description for this scene using the labelled illustration to support your writing. Use interesting noun groups and vivid verbs.