13 Words

 "13 Words" by Lemony Snicket, the author of  "A Series of Unfortunate Events", is a clever exploration of beautiful words. While the story does not have much of a plot - in fact it is rather silly - the illustrations by Maria Kalman are bold and colourful with clever details that draw the reader's eye to look closer and the reader's mind to add more details to the story. At the end of the book, Lemony Snicket uses the same 13 words to create a different story.  A great way to introduce some new vocabulary, this book lends itself perfectly to children creating their own stories using the 13 words. After reading it to one class,  a student responded to a complement about her hat by saying, "Thank-you, I thought it had panache"!

(Primary and Intermediate as a writing starter)