This engaging book cover caught my eye during a summer stroll through the picture book stacks of my favorite library. I picked it up, sat down and read all about Inky’s escape from New Zealand’s National Aquarium. When I was done, I knew I had a new mentor text to use with my fifth-grade writers.
Last week I shared Inky’s Amazing Escape with the intention of using it as a narrative nonfiction mentor text.
As we read kids noticed:
Sy Montgomery uses repetition. She keeps repeating “one arm, two arms, four arms–eight“. I would like to try using repetition in my nonfiction writing.
I noticed that the author used dashes. I never know when to use a dash.
She ask questions in the middle of the story. I sometimes use them in leads or conclusions, but not middles. I think I could try that.
The author puts octopus facts throughout the story. Like the part when it says Inky “could both feel and taste with his suckers”.
I got to the end and closed the back cover. I looked up at the group of fifth graders in front of me expecting smiles and positive feedback.
Not one word. Just 21 pairs of eyes staring at me.
A few seconds passed and one student asked, “That’s the end?”
Then, the floodgates opened, and students began calling out:
It’s a cliffhanger!
Can we write our own story about what we think Inky is doing now?
I want to write what happens next from Inky’s point of view!
And that’s how Inky’s Amazing Escape also became a mentor text for fifth-grade narrative fiction writing!
