Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam Affair

After this the students tracked their activities for 7 days - 24 hours a day. We then created spreadsheets with this information and finally graphed our information - using excel or other spreadsheed program. At the end of the session, I had some thought provoking questions that they needed to answer in small groups based upon their graphs and spreadsheets. They loved it!!


A great book on the importance of reading!   May 26, 2000
Nicole Schuette (High Desert, CA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This book is a wonderful story about what happens when people no longer read. It has great imagery--books being used for table legs and to prop open doors, even as a dam. I used it in my seventh grade language arts class, following it up with a discussion of why reading is important. Even though it's a picture book, my seventh graders really got into it.


Great for Say No to TV week!   July 26, 1999
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

This is a great book for talking to children about the importance of books and ties in perfectly with Say No to TV week! Our other favorites for Say No to TV include Library 'Lil and Shel Silverstein's poem, Jimmy Jet and the TV Set.


A good book for reading   January 24, 2001
2 out of 2 found this review helpful

In Aunt Chip and the Great Triple Creek Dam affair, Patricia Polacco teaches you that you shouldn't watch more t.v. than read. I thought this book was excellet. I recommend this book to people that like t.v. because maybe this will teach them a leason to STOP WATCHING T.V.! My favorite part of this book is when they destroyed the t.v. tower.


Gift of reading   March 2, 2003
Jay
1 out of 1 found this review helpful

In the town of Triple Creek, television is the only source of entertainment and information. In fact, the teachers have even been replaced with educational programming. The library was torn down to make way for a television transmitter. For fifty years, the town has not read a book, but has instead used them to prop up buildings and fill in potholes. So long they have been without books, that they have actually forgotten to read.

When Eli begins visiting his Aunt Chip, she teaches him to read. The most wonderful gift in the world. His enthusiasm spreads and soon all the children are begging to have Aunt Chip teach them to get stories from a book. When the adults learn of what is happening they respond at first in fear and anger, but eventually want their children to teach them to read.

Why 5 stars?:
Polacco has a wonderful way of making her characters a little zany, but still real enough to be believable. The watercolor illustrations give the soft feeling of her words. Most importantly, the message of the importance of books and reading is something that purveys through most of Polacco's works. This book deserves to be a part of your home, school or classroom library. Read it to, and with your child. Let him or her know that you value reading and they will too.