Grandpa Hates the Bird: Six Short Stories of Exciting, Hilarious, and Possibly Deadly Adventure

*Author: Eve Yohalem *Publisher: Telemachus Press
*Chapter book for readers 6 to 10 (actually it’s a collection of humorous short stories)
*Bird and Grandpa as main characters
*Rating: Kids will LOVE Grandpa Hates the Bird!. The stories have a great voice and are full of humor–a blessing in today’s kids’ lit!

Short, short summary: “Every February, my family takes a one-week holiday some place warm. Mother and Father, Joseph and Maya pack their bathing suits, sunglasses, and good books and head south. I do not join them because I am the bird.

Instead I go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house where they have an extra cage for me, one with a
particularly jaunty bell I like very much and some braided string and beads I don’t like at all.”

So starts the short story collection. . .Grandpa Hates the Bird The bird goes on to tell the reader that Grandma has a business trip at the same time as the family’s trip some place warm, and so the bird and Grandpa will be left ALONE. And as dear, young Joseph says, “But Mom, Grandpa hates the bird!” See you’re hooked, aren’t you? What’s going to happen when these two are left alone? Will they both survive? You’ll have to read to find out. The short story collection involves the bird and attempts to explain some of the mysteries began in story one!

(only $2.99)

So what do I do with this book?

1. The voice is strong in this book. Use it as a good example of voice when you are teaching the six plus one traits of writing.

2. Write the story from another character’s perspective. Would it be a different story if written from Grandpa’s POV? What about one of the children? It might be too much for one student/ child to write the whole story form a new pov, so divide the work in half.

3. Use this short story collection to teach some character education, too. Does he really hate the bird? How can these two solve their problem with conflict resolution skills.