Beware, The Snowman is the story of a young girl named Jaclyn who moves from her hometown of Chicago to the cold wintery town of Sherpia. She learns about a mysterious snowman that the townspeople are afraid of living on the top of a hill. The story shows what happens when she breaks the rules and climbs to the top of the mountain to meet the snowman. This is a fun book for kids grades 3-7 who enjoy a wacky plot with frightening elements.
This story falls under the genre of fiction because of its imaginary plot and characters. I would even go to say there are some aspects of fantasy that this book contains based on the snowman that talks, and the magic powers of sorcery.
Activities:
Great for the Halloween season have students write a short horror story making sure to include at least one character that is not realistic.
Have students identify ways the author keeps readers interested in the story by using suspenseful writing.
Reader Response Questions:
What did the people in Sherpia do to protect themselves?
Who did the snowman tell Jaclyn he was? Who was he really?
Why was the snowman on top of the mountain?
The Goosebumps series written by R.L. Stine is made up of over 60 books. This story is one that I remember checking out of the library in middle school. I loved the R.L. Stine books growing up because of their scary plots and weird characters.
More books by Stine:
The Haunted Mask
Don't Go to Sleep
Full Moon Fever
Stine, R., L. (1997). Beware, the snowman. New York, NY: Scholastic.
One activity you could do with the children is have them draw their own scary snowman on black construction paper with chalk. this simulates the gentle edges of the snow as well as the nighttime sky.
ReplyDeleteAnother activity could be to make a diorama box of a scene out of the book. this could be a classroom project or a take home project depending on the age of the children chosen. This box would include multiple elements of the book and a variety of media. Once the boxes are completed they can be displayed in order, based off of scene, to showcase to the school the story through the readers eyes.