A story within a story about storytelling
Illustration uses jars image by ThreeMilesPerHour from Pixabay
Sometimes the stories that resonate or stay with you somehow find you. This has often happened to me through book clubs, or friends passing on their favourite reads when I have been ambushed by stories I wouldn’t have chosen myself.
Yarns and tales and the telling, they’re all about unravelling the truths that life hides … It’s about you, and the story and where the two things meet.
from Eren by Simon P. Clark
Eren by Simon P. Clark was given to me by a friend and although aimed at young readers (age 10+), it captured my attention and kept me thinking about it long after the final page. Eren is about the origins and power of storytelling and it contains many wonderful quotes about stories, “Why do we tell stories? We tell stories because we know no other ways to fly.” It also features short tales. The one that I found myself rereading over and again was about a man who collected words, locking the ones he liked in special jars so that no-one could ever use them again. The tale never reaches its conclusion due to an interruption just as the word collector is on the cusp of attaining the ‘Greatest Word’ leaving the reader wondering what it could be.
It is a book that appeals to readers who like dark, eerie and mysterious stories. It’s great for a class book to be read daily, or to use the mini story and keep in the classroom library for individual reading.
Wonderful Words
‘Constellation’, ‘peahen’ and ‘gobbled’ are three of the words collected in the short tale; as a reader you can’t help but think what would your words be. What makes a word worthy? Is it the sound of the word or the meaning. Does it sum up a concept or evoke a strong feeling? These are really interesting ideas to explore with students. Here are some ideas for turning young writers into word collectors.
Ideas
Curate a collection of wonderful words.
- A ‘jar’ for each student to put their words in. This is a good use for those plastic food and drink containers that collect in cupboards! Foil packaging (such as crisp packets) can be used to write words with a permanent marker, or use glitter glue for sparkle. Displayed in a dark corner with fairy lights this will look really special. Whenever a new word is found it can be added to the jar which then become a resource at creative writing time.
- Sensory jar creations. Add oil, water, glitter, cubes or Lego with letters on to build the words inside the jar. See links below for some great ideas and instructions.
- A Word Collection notebook to add to and refer to. I have added free jar templates to the TTT shop here https://www.tes.com/teaching-resource/word-collector-templates-12171590
- A display of The Greatest Words. Each student adds their favourite word to a jar (2D or 3D) on the shelf.
Links:
Sensory bottles
https://littlebinsforlittlehands.com/recycled-sensory-bottles-common-household-bottles/
Further Reading
If your students (or you!) enjoyed reading Eren, you’ll be pleased to know there is a short story project online by Simon P.Clark in collaboration with photographer Brandon Rechten, ‘Twelve Stories. Twelve Photographs. One Question. Who – or what is Eren? http://www.erentales.com/