Read a Sample
Table of Contents
Note to Students
Note to Educators
Beginning Prompts
Middle Prompts
Ending Prompts
Appendix
Chapter 1
Note to Students:
Fairy tale are meant to be imaginative and whimsical so don’t hold back. If you think a pot should be magically fill with porridge whenever someone tells it to, then make it so.
In this book you’ll get to work with beginning, middle, and ending prompts quoted from Grimms’ fairy tales. If you need more space when you’re writing, write on the back page of the prompt. Or, if you’re writing a prompt that has you starting in the middle, start on the facing blank page (if you have one.)
If you have the opposite problem and seem to have extra space left over, fill it with an illustration.
Beginnings: In these prompts, the Grimms start the story for you, giving you characters and setting. You get to come up with the conflict and the plot. Start by thinking about what could go wrong…
Middles: Here you are stuck in the middle. What happened before and what is going to happen after? Remember to introduce us to your characters and show us the setting where the story is taking place.
Endings: Work backward to find out how the characters ended up here. It’s like you are a fairy tale detective and have to piece all the evidence together.
Appendix: Look here to find out which story the prompt came from. Then go and compare your story with the Grimms’ original.
Sample beginning:
There was once a King who had an illness, and no one believed that he would come out of it with his life.
Sample middle:
The dream may have been true," said the King, "I will give you a piece of advice. Fill your pocket full of peas, and make a small hole in it, and then if you are carried away again, they will fall out and leave a track in the streets."
Sample ending:
Then Dr. Knowall showed the count where the money was, but did not say who had stolen it, and received from both sides much money in reward, and became a renowned man.
