Unit 3 · Stories and True Books

Think about the race. A hare. A tortoise. They are the ones in the story. They talk. They run. They do things. We call them the characters.

A character can be a person. A character can be an animal. A character can even be a talking cup! If it does things in the story, it is a character.

When you open a book, ask, "Who is this about?" Look at the pictures. Look at the names. Find the characters first. Then the story makes sense.

The hare and the tortoise race on a road. It is a sunny day. There is a tree. The hare naps under it. The road, the day, the tree. That is the setting.

The setting is where a story happens. It is also when. A story can happen in a city. It can happen on the moon. It can happen at night or long ago.

The setting changes the story. Snow means cold. A dark forest means scary. Look at the pictures to find the setting. Ask, "Where are they? When is it?"

The race starts. The hare runs ahead. The hare takes a nap. The tortoise walks past. The tortoise wins. Each thing that happens is an event.

Events come in order. First one thing. Then the next. Then the next. If you mix them up, the story breaks. The hare cannot nap before the race starts!

When you read, keep a list in your head. What happened first? What happened next? What happened last? Those are the events.

The hare wants to win. The tortoise wants to win too. She also wants the hare to stop laughing at her. A want is what a character is trying to get.

Ask, "What does this character want?" Then watch what they do. The tortoise wants to win. So she keeps walking. She never stops. Her want tells you why she does it.

Every story has a want. A dog wants a bone. A girl wants a friend. A boy wants to fly a kite. The want makes the story go.

The hare laughs at the tortoise. He feels proud. He feels sure he will win. At the end, he loses. Now he feels surprised. Maybe a little sad. These are his feelings.

A book does not always say the feeling. It shows it. A big smile means happy. Tears mean sad. Stomping feet mean mad. Look at the face in the picture. Look at what the character says.

Feelings can change. The hare felt proud at the start. He felt shocked at the end. Ask, "How does the character feel now?" Ask it again later.

The tortoise has a problem. The hare is faster. How can she win? A problem is something that is wrong or hard for a character.

The story shows the fix. The tortoise keeps going. The hare naps. She passes him. The problem is solved. That is the solution. A solution is how the problem gets fixed.

Find the problem in every story. Then find the solution. Sam lost his mitten. The dog found it. Problem, then solution. Most stories work this way.

Close the book. Now tell the story. First, the hare laughs at the tortoise. Next, they race. Then the hare naps. Last, the tortoise wins. That is a retelling.

Use order words. First. Next. Then. Last. They keep the events in line. Say who the characters are. Say where it happens. Say the problem and the fix.

The pictures can help you. Flip through them. Each picture shows an event. Point to a picture. Say what happens. Move to the next one.

Who raced? The hare and the tortoise. Where? On a road. When? On a sunny day. What happened? The tortoise won. Why? The hare took a nap. These are the question words.

Who asks about the characters. Where and when ask about the setting. What asks about the events. Why asks for the reason. Every story can answer all five.

Ask them before you read. Ask them while you read. Ask them after. If you can answer all five, you understand the story.

Ms. Ortiz reads a second book. This time the race is in a city. The hare rides a scooter. The tortoise walks. The hare stops for ice cream. The tortoise still wins.

Two books can tell the same tale. That is a version. The setting changed. The hare’s nap became ice cream. But the characters, the problem and the ending stayed the same.

Both books teach the same lesson. Keep going and do not quit. A lesson is what the story wants you to learn. Ask, "What did the character learn?" That is the lesson.

Pip the frog wears a hat. Pip talks. Pip hops to the pond to find his hat. None of this really happened. The author made it up. That makes it a story book.

A story book has characters. It has a problem. It has events in order. It can have talking animals. It can have magic. It does not have to be real.

Made up does not mean bad. Stories are fun. Stories teach lessons. But you do not use a story to learn facts. Pip cannot teach you what real frogs eat.

"A frog lays its eggs in water." That is a fact. It is true. Someone checked it. Ruby’s book is full of facts. It is a true book.

A true book is about one thing. It might be frogs. It might be trucks. It might be the moon. It tells you facts about that thing. The pictures show real things.

You read a true book to learn. You can start at any page. You can read just the part you need. You do not have to read it in order like a story.

Ruby turns a page. Big dark words sit at the top: What Frogs Eat. Under them, smaller words tell about flies and bugs. The big words are a heading.

A heading is like a sign. It tells you what the next part is about. Frog Eggs. Where Frogs Live. What Frogs Eat. Each heading starts a new part.

Use the headings to find things. Want to know what frogs eat? Look for that heading. Skip the rest. Headings save you time.

Ruby’s book has a photo of a frog. A line points to its back leg. The word by the line says leg. Another line points to the eye. It says eye. Those words are labels.

Under the photo there is one short sentence. "This tree frog lives in a rain forest." That sentence is a caption. A caption tells you what the picture shows.

Labels name parts. Captions tell about the whole picture. Read both. Sometimes the caption has a fact that is not in the big words.

Open the true book to the first pages. There is a list. Frog Eggs, page 4. Tadpoles, page 6. Where Frogs Live, page 10. This list is the table of contents.

The table of contents shows every part of the book. Next to each part is a page number. Find the part you want. Turn to that page.

Story books do not need one. You read them in order. But true books do. The table of contents helps you jump right to the facts you need.

What is Ruby’s whole book about? Frogs. That is the topic. The topic is the one big thing the book is about. The title often tells you the topic.

Now look inside. Frogs lay eggs in water. Frogs eat bugs. Frogs have long back legs. Each fact is a detail. Details tell you more about the topic.

Think of a tree. The topic is the trunk. The details are the branches. Every branch is part of the tree. Every detail is about the topic.

Jae has a question. "Do frogs have teeth?" He does not know. So he picks up the true book. A question is what you want to find out.

He looks at the table of contents. He finds What Frogs Eat, page 14. He turns to it. He reads the heading. He reads the words. He reads the caption. There it is.

The book says most frogs have tiny teeth on top. They do not chew with them. They swallow food whole. Jae found his answer. Ask, look, read, find.

Both books are about frogs. Pip’s book is a story. Ruby’s book is true. Same animal. Different kind of book. We can compare them. To compare is to look at what is the same and different.

What is the same? Both have a green frog. Both show a pond. What is different? Pip talks. The real frog does not. Pip’s book has a problem. Ruby’s book has facts.

Two true books can be compared too. One might have more photos. One might tell more about eggs. Read both. Then you know more than one book can tell you.

Look at the cover of Pip’s book. Two names are on it. One person wrote the words. That is the author. One person drew Pip. That is the illustrator.

Sometimes one person does both. Sometimes it is two people. The author thinks up the story or finds the facts. The illustrator draws or takes the photos.

In a true book, the pictures matter a lot. The illustrator shows real things. A photo of a real frog helps you see the facts.