Fig Pudding
by Ralph Fletcher
Even though I had read and used a lot of Ralph Fletcher's teacher materials I had never been inspired to read his children's books until reading his Mentor Author, Mentor Texts, where he mentioned a lot of his books. The one that stuck out to me was Fig Pudding, so I read it.
Cliff, the oldest of six siblings, five boys and one girl, tells us about his family. Cliff lets us see the highs and lows, the laughs and the tears the Abernathy clan share over a one year period. All of the chapters could be read as stand alone short stories but reading the book as a whole allows the reader to see how each character changes over time. Despite the brevity of the book, 136 pages, all ten characters are developed fairly well.
While I'm going to reccomend the whole book to my students, I'm going to use parts of it during reading instruction and writing instruction. "The Tackle Box" is a great story. Cliff gets a new tackle box that he loves. When he is asked to share it Cliff is forced to grow up and learn about life. I can't wait to have my students make predictions and discuss Cliff's motives as I read this short story to them.
"Headless Chick" does a great job of exploding a moment. In one section, student writers will be able to see the difference between writing and great writing Ralph Fletcher doesn't write: "We checked to see if Uncle Billy was dead." Instead he gives very specific details about what the children do and spices it up with great dialogue.
Finally, in "Traded Away" which is about Cliff's sister Cyn wanting a new family, a the resoltuion that brings her back into the family is also a perfectly written story about a missing cat. Instead of writing the basics: "We lost the cat." We looked for the cat. We found the cat. We celebrated," Ralph Fletcher stretched out each moment and showed the reader how the cat was lost, how the children searched, how the cat was found, how they celebrated while allowing the reader to see how the characters were feeling throughout the ordeal.
First Published: 1995
Reading Level: Fifth Grade
Locations: School library, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble
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