The cage in the Station Inspector's office [updated]
Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 09:46AM One of the benefits of reading aloud to your kids that's sometimes overlooked is that it develops their sense of story. Plop Leo (and to a lesser extent, Milly) down in the middle of a new book and he'll get his bearings pretty quickly. He can tell you a good story, too.
The other night he had to answer this question about his leveled reader, Ski Patrol: "After you read page 5, did you think there would be an avalanche in the story? Why or why not?" I think the answer they were looking for was yes, because the weather conditions were right. Leo's answer was yes, because if they mention an avalanche on page 5, there will probably be one later in the story. It's a meteorological Chekhov's gun. (That last sentence is mine. Leo prefers Tolstoy. Kidding!)
Later that (same) night, Leo and I started reading Brian Selznick's brilliant (and Caldecott Award-winning, hooray!) The Invention of Hugo Cabret (Scholastic, 2007). At the end of chapter 2, Hugo looks into the Station Inspector's office: "[He] could see the Station Inspector's desk, and in the corner of the office, the cage of a small jail cell that sat waiting for any criminals caught in the station. Hugo had seen men and women locked up in there, and a few times he had even seen boys no older than himself in the cell, their eyes red from crying. Eventually, these people were taken away, and Hugo never saw them again" (80). We stopped reading there, turned out the light. In the darkness, Leo asked, "Will Hugo end up in that cage, Mommy?"
You don't need me to tell you that at the beginning of Chapter 10, he does.
[Given permission to read ahead, I happily finished the entire book. I think Hugo would have loved it himself, especially the ending. After all, "He thought every good story should end with a big, exciting chase" (202).]
Reader Comments (4)
yow! poor Hugo!!
i'm with you! reading and hearing stories is a major component of the Enki curriculum and something that is very therapeutic, from an autism remediation point of view, in terms of strengthening internal self-talk, sequencing, problem solving and good old sparking of the imagination.
I know that reading books has given me a highly developed sense of story. It's very cool to hear about how early that can develop, for a child who's been read a lot of books. This strong sense of story can be a curse later in life, in some ways, because it's much harder for an author to surprise you. But then again, it's especially thrilling when an author does.
Leo and I are on the same page. That's exactly what I thought when I read about the cage... I just kept waiting for Hugo to end up there. And, then it seemed for a while like he was going to escape that fate... but no, there he was at the beginning of Chapter Ten. Bravo to Leo for picking it up so early!
-Susan
Wow! Thank you all for these thoughtful comments.
Kyra, I knew (from you!) that stories were an important part of the Enki curriculum, but the theory behind it makes a lot of sense to me, too. Are there certain kinds of stories (folk and fairy tales, maybe?) that are especially recommended from a therapeutic point of view?
Jen, yes, I think good story sense can develop early; even three-year-old Milly surprises me sometimes (a post for another day). I also love your point (and agree wholeheartedly) about how thrilling it is when an author does manage to surprise you.
And Susan, I'm going to update this post with another example from Hugo himself!