Thumbelina



1. **Author/Illustrator** – Author: Hans Christian Anderson, retold by: Amy Ehrlich Illustrated by: Susan Jeffers

2. **Title and date of publication** – __Thumbelina__ Published: 1979 Dial Press

3. **Genre** – Modern Fantasy

4. **Format** – Picture Book

5. **Award** – No awards listed

6. **Summary of book** – __Thumbelina__ is a book about a girl who is only one inch tall. She gets taken from her home by a toad and then has to figure out how to get away and live on her own. A swallow that she has once nursed back to health returned to rescue Thumbelina.

7. **Strategies to use with the book** – Because this is a very long story, I would retell the story to make it shorter. Preschool age children do not developmentally have the attention span for this book to be read word for word. During the telling, I would ask questions to ensure that the children are following the gist.

After telling the story, we will match some pre-selected picture vocabulary words on the felt board (If I had a smartboard like the rest of my school, we would use that, but I do not.) In order to do our vocabulary, we sing the “Surprise Bag” song and each child pulls out a vocabulary word. They then run it through the smart talk device, it reads the word to them and then they match it to the same picture on the felt board.

Once we have finished the surprise bag, we will sing the song “Where is Thumbkin”. After we sing “Where is Thumbkin”, we will do the Mystery Box which will have a character from the story inside. Children will ask for clues in order to figure out what is inside. Once we finish the Mystery Box, we will move to centers where the theme of the activities will coincide with the book.