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A review by ellalouise99
Blackberry Blue: And Other Fairy Tales by Jamila Gavin
4.0
A great collection of short fairytale style stories with both similarities and differences to the traditional fairy tales. This book would be perfect for use in KS2 as a storybook to read and enjoy but could also be used in English lessons as the descriptions in this book are beautifully detailed. Some of the stories could also be read to children in KS1 making this a perfect universal book for a primary school teacher. There are lots of opportunities for predictions to be made by the children throughout the stories as well as opportunities for questioning by the teacher. I found this book enjoyable to read and will be using it with children in the future.
I liked the fact that the book contains a collection of short stories which could help to keep children, particularly younger ones, engaged throughout the book as you wouldn’t be reading each story for very long. I also believe there are a lot of opportunities for children to write their own endings or scenes from the stories. For example, the teacher could read all of the story apart from the last chapter and then children could finish writing it in a big write session following on from a class discussion to inspire creative ideas by sharing. There are also plenty of cross-curricular links which could be included. For example, children could create their own dresses for Blackberry Blue in DT, by first designing and then making them with inspiration from the book (using natural resources or taking inspiration from the colours and textures described).
Some of the stories in this collection may not be suitable for certain children so as a teacher, this must be considered before reading the book. For example, in one of the stories, a child’s father dies and his mother ends up in a bad relationship. This story may therefore not be suitable to read to a child who has been in a similar situation as it could become quite upsetting for them. KS1 teachers would also have to consider their individual class before reading stories from this collection as some of them may be too complex for young children to fully understand or enjoy.
There are lots of patterns which appear in this book which have strong links to traditional fairy tales. For example, the princess changing from ‘ugly’ to ‘beautiful’ links to the prince changing from a frog to a prince in traditional stories, the princess looking for a prince also links very closely to.
This book would allow for many opportunities for transforming the classroom/reading area to engage the children with the book. For example, the reading area could be made into the tree that the king lived inside while in the forest and misleading paths could be created around the classroom or in the playground.
I liked the fact that the book contains a collection of short stories which could help to keep children, particularly younger ones, engaged throughout the book as you wouldn’t be reading each story for very long. I also believe there are a lot of opportunities for children to write their own endings or scenes from the stories. For example, the teacher could read all of the story apart from the last chapter and then children could finish writing it in a big write session following on from a class discussion to inspire creative ideas by sharing. There are also plenty of cross-curricular links which could be included. For example, children could create their own dresses for Blackberry Blue in DT, by first designing and then making them with inspiration from the book (using natural resources or taking inspiration from the colours and textures described).
Some of the stories in this collection may not be suitable for certain children so as a teacher, this must be considered before reading the book. For example, in one of the stories, a child’s father dies and his mother ends up in a bad relationship. This story may therefore not be suitable to read to a child who has been in a similar situation as it could become quite upsetting for them. KS1 teachers would also have to consider their individual class before reading stories from this collection as some of them may be too complex for young children to fully understand or enjoy.
There are lots of patterns which appear in this book which have strong links to traditional fairy tales. For example, the princess changing from ‘ugly’ to ‘beautiful’ links to the prince changing from a frog to a prince in traditional stories, the princess looking for a prince also links very closely to.
This book would allow for many opportunities for transforming the classroom/reading area to engage the children with the book. For example, the reading area could be made into the tree that the king lived inside while in the forest and misleading paths could be created around the classroom or in the playground.