Fracturing Fairy Tales

If you’ve got reluctant writers in your class, fractured fairy tales can be the way to go. Students enjoy changing traditional fairy tales. Pigs can be heroes, Grannies can take on wolves, and Goldilocks can live happily ever after with her new friends, The Bears. Using mentor texts can inspire students to find creative, fun ways to change familiar stories.

And the Star of the Book is the Narrator: The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith

Jack the Narrator (as in Jack in the Beanstalk) tells the story and deals with cast members from various fairy tales. Chicken Little is afraid the sky is falling and wants to call the President. The Really Ugly Duckling is really just ugly. And the Princess finally feels the pea when a bowling bowl is exchanged for the pea. The book is ridiculous and fun for kids.

Lesson: Students could rewrite fairy tales incorporating an “interrupting narrator” like Jack. They could work together in groups to make their stories work together. The book also has a title page and table of contents in weird places. Each group could make their own book and include these elements in the right or wrong place.

As Only Mo Willems Can Do It: Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

Mo Willems replaces three innocent, unsuspecting bears with three conniving dinosaurs in this very fractured fairy tale. These three dinosaurs set a trap for the “succulent” Goldilocks. In a funny, creative twist to the traditional story, Goldilocks learns an important lesson: “If you ever find yourself in the wrong story, leave.”

Lesson: Students can create fractured fairy tales by asking questions about the traditional tale. By thinking about why the bears went out while the porridge was in the kitchen or why Goldilocks went in the house in the first place (or whatever happens in the story they choose) they can come up with ideas to change the story and make it their own.

“Saving the Day” Fractured Fairy Tale – Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein

Papa tells the little red chicken some bedtime stories. But the little red chicken interrupts every story to save the characters and help them out. She can’t help herself, after all the characters didn’t really deserve their awful fates.

Lesson: Students find fairy tales in which characters need rescuing or stories need better endings. They can rewrite the fairy tale with their own creative conclusion. This would be a great lesson for improving story endings overall.

Make It a Mystery Fairy Tale: Who Pushed Humpty Dumpty by David Levinthal and John Nickle

Have you ever wondered if the antagonist got punished for his horrible deeds in fairy tales? Officer Binky is on the case looking for clues, confessions and leads to solve the crimes. Goldilocks ends up in jail, Hansel and Gretel have a clear case of self defense. and the queen doesn’t get away with poisoning Snow White.

Lesson: Obviously, students could find other fairy tales with “unsolved” crimes that they can solve. Creating their own “Officer Binky” would be quite motivating for almost any writer.

And the story is told by a pencil: little RED writing by Melissa Sweet This adaptation Little Red Riding Hood features a pencil as the protagonist. Her teacher, Ms. 2, tells her class of pencils that their assignment is to write a story. She gives Little Red a basket of 15 words to use in case she runs into trouble. When Little Red enters Principal Granny’s office she encounters Wolf 3000 the “grumpiest, growliest, grindingest pencil sharpener ever made.” Using her handy word bag, Little Red saves the day.

Lesson: This book has an educational twist to it including “conjunction glue,” “verb action fitness program” and the “noun word basket.” It also contains hints for punctuation. The book would be a great way to introduce and reinforce these concepts.