White Wolves: Stories from Different Cultures – serie

Accompanying the specially-commissioned White Wolves fiction range, which has been written in consultation with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education, each of these books contains five literacy lesson plans and five photocopiable activities for each of the three graded story books in the Year 5 and 6 strands. The activities are designed for guided reading sessions in schools, in which each class is divided into groups of children with a comparable level of reading experience. The teacher spends time helping each group to negotiate a book specially chosen to match their experience level, and also sets the children literacy activities which they can work through by themselves. Guided reading helps children develop strategies for reading which enable them to become independent readers.

This retelling of a traditional African folktale explains how we came to have stories in the world.Nyame the sky god has a special treasure - in a big, brass chest are all the stories ever told. Anansi, the cleverest of spiders, sees that down on Earth, the people are bored. Unfortunately, she can''t spin a tale, but she can spin a web. So she makes a ladder up into the sky, determined to bring back the stories, whatever it takes.

Petrushka is part of Russian folklore, but is not a folk tale. It is in the European tradition of ''Harlequin'' and ''Punch'', performed in a puppet theatre at travelling fairs. Petrushka is tired of being a clown in a puppet show. He wants to save pretty ballerina from Strongman and take her in his arms far, far away. His mind is made up and, encouraged by Skeleton, the next day he challenges his rival to a duel. But he''s no match for Strongman and ends up in a lifeless, crumpled heap. ''That old ragdoll needs chucking out,'' says the showman. But Petrushka has other ideas...

A retelling of a traditional Irish folk tale. The king is on the way tovisiting Culain''s house, when he sees a young boy, Setanta, playinghurling very bravely, and asks him to join them later. However, as heforgets to inform his host that he will have an extra visitor. Setantais attacked by Culain''s guard dog - which he bravely fights and kills.As Culain is so sad at the loss of his prized hound, Setanta offers toguard the house and its grounds until a replacement is found. The king,impressed by the boy''s bravery and skill, gives him the nameCulchulainn, the Hound of Ulster.

Nine-year-old Michael is coming from London to Trinidad to visit hisgrandmother, who is recovering from a difficult operation, and histen-year-old cousin, Shayla. A fierce rivalry develops between the twochildren and everything becomes a competition - who can eat the hottestfood, climb the tallest tree, tell the spookiest story. Michael winseach time and Shayla confesses to her mum that she feels Michael''s lifeis much more exciting than hers in Arouca. She thought she was special,but everything she can do, Michael can do so much better. LuckilyShayla''s mum has a plan that will make Shayla realise her own goodqualities, and for cheering up her poor old granny in the process...Granny Ting Ting is a contemporary story set in Trinidad.

When Eva''s uncle goes back on his word and refuses to reward her the cow he promised in return for her hard work, she is not about to stand back and let him. Her father goes up against her uncle to battle it out in front of the local judge. The judge decides that whoever can answer his three questions correctly will keep the cow. Eva''s father wins, but really it was Eva who came up with the answers. When the judge hears about the clever young girl, he asks her to marry him. But he soon discovers there''s more to having a clever wife than he bargained for...Ever Clever Eva is a contemporary retelling of a classic Czech tale.

A retelling of a traditional Irish folk tale. The king is on the way tovisiting Culain''s house, when he sees a young boy, Setanta, playinghurling very bravely, and asks him to join them later. However, as heforgets to inform his host that he will have an extra visitor. Setantais attacked by Culain''s guard dog - which he bravely fights and kills.As Culain is so sad at the loss of his prized hound, Setanta offers toguard the house and its grounds until a replacement is found. The king,impressed by the boy''s bravery and skill, gives him the nameCulchulainn, the Hound of Ulster.

When Eva''s uncle goes back on his word and refuses to reward her the cow he promised in return for her hard work, she is not about to stand back and let him. Her father goes up against her uncle to battle it out in front of the local judge. The judge decides that whoever can answer his three questions correctly will keep the cow. Eva''s father wins, but really it was Eva who came up with the answers. When the judge hears about the clever young girl, he asks her to marry him. But he soon discovers there''s more to having a clever wife than he bargained for...Ever Clever Eva is a contemporary retelling of a classic Czech tale.

This retelling of a traditional African folktale explains how we came to have stories in the world.Nyame the sky god has a special treasure - in a big, brass chest are all the stories ever told. Anansi, the cleverest of spiders, sees that down on Earth, the people are bored. Unfortunately, she can''t spin a tale, but she can spin a web. So she makes a ladder up into the sky, determined to bring back the stories, whatever it takes.

Petrushka is part of Russian folklore, but is not a folk tale. It is in the European tradition of ''Harlequin'' and ''Punch'', performed in a puppet theatre at travelling fairs. Petrushka is tired of being a clown in a puppet show. He wants to save pretty ballerina from Strongman and take her in his arms far, far away. His mind is made up and, encouraged by Skeleton, the next day he challenges his rival to a duel. But he''s no match for Strongman and ends up in a lifeless, crumpled heap. ''That old ragdoll needs chucking out,'' says the showman. But Petrushka has other ideas...