Bookweird: paul glennon

Grades 4-6

About Paul Glennon

Summary

Norman Jespers-Vilnius is just an average eleven-year-old kid—until he wakes up inside his favourite book, achieving the dream of all avid readers. His journey is not what he had hoped, however, because his presence affects the action and causes problems for his heroes. Caught by a mysterious force called "Bookweird," Norman struggles not only to escape the book, but to keep the plot moving in the right direction. In The Undergrowth Saga, he finds himself caught up in an epic battle between animal kingdoms, and forges a friendship with a future king. He returns home briefly, but Bookweird grows stronger again and begins to pull Norman into his family’s books, mixing up plotlines. Norman tries to undo an act of violence in his sister’s horse novel, and has to explain the appearance of a pony to some disgruntled policemen at a crime scene in his mother’s favourite thriller. Can Norman put all of the stories back on track and return these fictional worlds to normal? Or will Bookweird trap him in the pages of a book forever?

General Themes:

1. Getting 'caught up' in reading – how the reading experience can make it seem as if you are 'there.'
2. Readers’ expectations of a book – conflict, resolution, etc.
3. Genres – conventions and expectations from particular genres, i.e., fantasy versus crime drama, etc.
4. Writing styles and narrative techniques

Classroom Activities:

Discussion Topics:

1. If you could go into any book, which would you want to go into? Which would you stay away from?
2. How does Norman get into the books? Why do you think eating the pages makes him travel into the book?
3. Norman travels into different kinds of books: a fantasy adventure, a book about horses, a crime novel, an ancient epic poem. How can you tell what kind of book he’s in? What are some features of each kind of book?
4. Discuss primary and secondary characters (characters who are the focus of the action and important to the overall plot, compared to minor characters who are not as important.) Which is Norman? Which is he in the books he travels into?
5. Norman’s sister knows when she gets to the part where the foal has been killed that it was wrong for her book, and shouldn’t have happened. How does she know that?
6. Read through the passages where the author is explaining, from Norman’s point of view as a reader, what has been happening in the Undergrowth Saga. How does the style change? Does it feel like a different book?
7. One of the most mysterious characters in the book is Fuchs (the librarian who is also a fox monk in the Undergrowth.) What do you think Fuchs is up to? Is he important to the story, or could the book work without him? Why do you think we find out so little about him?

1. Write a different ending for a book you’ve read. You can change it from a sad ending to a happy ending (or vice versa), write about what happened to the characters after the story ended, or anything else that changes the ending.
2. Write a story where you wind up inside your own favorite book. How do you react? Do you like being there?
3. Turn the tables: write a story in which a character from a book you’ve read finds him- or herself in our world. What would he/she do?
4. Take two kinds of books – for example, a science fiction book and a Western, or a mystery and a comedy – and write a story that combines both styles.
5. “Weird,” in “Bookweird,” means a kind of magic. Write a story about another kind of “weird” – for example “Movieweird” or Gameweird.” What would happen to someone who could travel through another kind of story?

Art Projects

1. Draw a scene from your favorite book – with you in it!
2. The animal characters in The Undergrowth Saga are ‘anthropomorphic’ – they walk, talk, wear clothes and use tools just like humans. Draw an anthropomorphic animal, maybe based on an animal you know, like a pet. Add details, like clothes and possessions, that tell a story about his or her personality.
3. Design a book cover for one of the books Norman travels into. Think about the style of the book and try to have your cover match the style.