My Father's Dragon Summary

My Father’s Dragon is a story told from the viewpoint of a son describing a heroic adventure of his father as a young boy. The father meets an alley cat who describes how he can rescue a sad baby dragon trapped on Wild Island. With the help of the cat and quick thinking, his father is prepared to meet the wild beasts of the island. This book would be fantastic in a 3rd-grade lesson about sequencing and inferencing. The students can describe context clues and follow the timeline of the story to identify what happens first, next, and last. They can also create a graphic organizer to describe each animal’s physical and personality traits. This is also a great book to read aloud to the class and goes by really fast with images you can walk around with. I really enjoyed the black and white …show more content…
One day, a white man came with his crew to hunt sea otter and claim the land. Karana’s father and village are defeated and soon Karana finds herself alone on the island, fighting to survive. She develops skills, creates weapons, and gathers supplies based on her observations and memories of the men and women from her village. She befriends a wild dog that becomes her family and comfort. I would use this book in a 3rd-grade language arts lesson to recount stories from diverse cultures and determine the central message of the story and explain how it is conveyed through key details. Students could write about personal connections they made with Karana by examining the ways in which they face adversity and hardship. This would also be a great book to act out scenes, characters, and what plots or events were influential in the story. As I was reading this story, I imagined myself on this island and how Karana inspired me to want to be just like her. It also gave me a glimpse into the life of Native American peoples and the complexity of their culture and way of