Reading & Workshop Discussion - Week 3

This weeks readings consisted of Chapter 13 of Winch and Gamble & Yates, 'Narrative and Narration'. After reading these texts we were required to;

• Draw a story shape (see pp. 64-65)
• Brooker has identified 7 basic plots (see p. 67). Which are relevant for your books?

Here is an example of the tasks:

Hissey, J 1987, Old Bear, Red Fox Publishing.

This narrative represents two of Brookers basic plots which are; the quest and voyage and return. The quest is represented through the journey which the bedroom toys, Bramwell, Duck, Rabbit and Little Bear go on to rescue their friend Old Bear who was locked away in the attic many years ago. The toys try many ideas in order to reach the attic in order to save Old Bear, but they fail. They then use a toy aero plane to send Little Bear to the attic in order to retrieve Old Bear. This is a success and the parachute back down and the friends are all reunited. The voyage and return is represented through Old Bears journey from being locked away in the attic and then being saved by his friends.

Holzwarth, W. & Erlbruch, W 1994,The Story of the Little Mole who knew it was None of his Business, Harper Collins Publishers.

This narrative represent two of Brookers basic plots which are; the quest and comedy. The quest is represented through the journey which the mole goes on in order to find out ‘who did their business on his head.’ The story follows the mole who goes on a ‘quest’ in which he encounters various animals in order to determine who the culprit was. The story climax with the mole discovering that the culprit was Bail the butchers dog. The story then concludes with the mole getting he revenge by ‘doing his business’ on the dogs head. The basic plot of comedy is also extremely relevant in this narrative, as the topic that is discuss is both humorous and unique meaning it will engage young children with the story.

In our workshop groups we discussed the readings and the analysis we did on our chosen books. It was interesting to see how our own perspectives and interpretations of stories differed and how we constructed our story shapes differently, based on either the plot and or the emotions expressed. In our group we discussed that both of these elements are crucial in interpreting stories and should be both be represented when constructing a story shape. We thought that this was a great way to represent stories as you are able to express the plot of a story in an easy and visual way, which would be great for children to use as well.