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Flying Lessons & Other Stories
Last updated Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Author: Ellen Oh
Date of Publication: 2017
ISBN: 110193459X
Grade Level: 4th (GLCs: Click here for grade level guidelines.)
Date(s) Used: Jan. 2024
Synopsis:
Great stories take flight in this adventurous middle-grade anthology crafted by ten of the most recognizable and diverse authors writing today. Newbery Medalist Kwame Alexander delivers a story in-verse about a boy who just might have magical powers; National Book Award winner Jacqueline Woodson spins a tale of friendship against all odds; and Meg Medina uses wet paint to color in one girl's world with a short story that inspired her Newbery award-winner Merci Suárez Changes Gear. Plus, seven more bold voices that bring this collection to new heights with tales that challenge, inspire, and celebrate the unique talents within us all.
AUTHORS INCLUDE: Kwame Alexander, Kelly J. Baptist, Soman Chainani, Matt de la Peña, Tim Federle, Grace Lin, Meg Medina, Walter Dean Myers, Tim Tingle, Jacqueline Woodson
| Note to readers: |
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Flying Lessons & Other Stories is a collection of short stories intended to reach children of diverse
ethnic, cultural, and life-circumstance backgrounds as they see themselves reflected in the pages of the
books they read.
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There are 10 stories, generally written about 7th and 8th graders. Our Reading to Kids Curriculum Committee member who reviewed this book has *asterisked the stories that they feel are most readable for the 4 th graders they encounter at Reading to Kids. You will likely have time for at least two stories, maybe three or four.
THE STORIES:
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How to Transform an Everyday, Ordinary Hoop Court into a Place of Higher Learning and You at the
Podium by Matt de la Pena Pg 01 Approx Reading Time: 27
A boy of Mexican heritage aspires to play basketball on the high school team after summer break. He
hitches rides with his dad to work and walks 5 more miles to get to the park known to be the mecca for
basketball talent in the city. Aching to play, he learns life lessons while listening and watching from the
bleachers…until his chance to play finally comes in a most unexpected way. A story of drive, courage,
overcoming obstacles of all types, and of unexpected lessons.
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The Difficult Path Grace Lin Pg 23 Approx Reading Time: 28
In olden China, a baby girl is sold to become a servant to a rich lady…but on the condition that she is
taught to read. When the girl is a teen, and still a servant, she is taken hostage by the dreaded pirates
that have ambushed the rich family. The pirate captain is…(surprise)…a woman…whose fierceness hides
her good heart. She intends to return the girl safely to land (despite the girl’s pleas to stay) until she
discovers that the girl can read. The girl is allowed to stay…if…she teaches the captain to read. And this
is the beginning of a whole new story…
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Sol Painting, Inc. Meg Medina Pg 41 Approx Reading Time: 35
It’s the end of summer and both 7 th grade Mercy (who wants to take over dad’s business) and 12 th
grade Rolando (big dreams of bio-science) must help their father paint the school gym (in return, the
school will allow Mercy to attend school for free). When clueless and rude upper-school girls
unthinkingly mess up the paint, Mercy expects her father to display his trademark temper – and is
ashamed when he does not. Rolando explains that in life we must choose our battles…and that, this day,
Mercy’s education is more important than her pride.
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Secret Samantha Tom Federle Pg 61 Approx Reading Time: 35
Shy and mis-under-stood “Sam”(antha) still feels as if she is the “newcomer” after one year in her
plain-boring-uniformed Midwest school until a bewitchingly quirky girl arrives from the California. While
Sam yearns for more expression, choosing the compromise name “Sparkles” instead of “Flame”) for her
Elf persona in this year’s “Secret Santa” event, the unnamed new girl shocks with her choice, “Blade”
…and she wears b-o-o-t-s, and….Sam’s heart begins to go “bah-boom, bah-Boom” in a huge girl-crush.
Which gift should Sam choose to give when she draws “Flame’s” name?….
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The Beans and Rice Chronicles of Isaiah Dunn Kelly J Baptist Pg 87 Approx Reading Time: 25
Isaiah Dunn’s father has passed away; he must help raise his sister, Charlie, in squalid poverty as his
mom enters a grief-induced alcoholic depression. His resilience is boosted when he finds one of his
father’s journals filled with stories about “Isaiah Dunn the boy hero” who has super powers and saves
children around the world. When Isaiah hears of a local literacy writing competition with a $300 prize
he spends hours in the library typing his father’s notebook of stories to submit. His sense of purpose
honoring the memory of his father helps to bring a change in his mom, too. Perhaps there are better
times ahead.
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Choctaw Bigfoot, Midnight in the Mountains Tim Tingle Pg 107 Approx Reading Time: 26
“Turtle Kid’s” uncle Kenneth weaves another of his hilarious tall tales filled with Choctaw Indian
wisdom and foklore. Although his mother warns him not to listen, and all the Choctaw aunts and uncles
roll their eyes, …we all, along with the “dozens of cousins,”… get drawn into the ever-growing story of
an intrepid Indian family trying to escape from the midst of the mischievous Bohpoli (“little people”) and
an angry Na Loosa Chitto (“Big Black Creature”). Throughout the story we discover that Choctaw
families, customs, wisdom, humor, and love are not so different from our own.
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Main Street Jacqueline Woodson Pg 125 Approx Reading Time: 13
“Treetops,” the 12-year-old girl at the center of the story findss a new best friend with arrival of a
black girl into her totally white small New Hampshire town. Celeste’s friendship lifts her from the
sadness she has felt since the death of her mom three years ago (painful details), just as Celeste misses
the father her mother is now separated from. They two become inseparable until, after their year-long
experiment, the pressure of being the only black family in the town becomes too great; Celeste and her
mom move back to New York. Celeste and the girl promise to celebrate their 18 th birthdays
together…Treetops is already counting the days.
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Flying Lessons Soman Chainani Pg 137 Approx Reading Time: 36
12-year-old Santosh is mortified by his grandmother’s outlandish behavior as he accompanies her on a
3-week European adventure. Nani is trying to add dimension to his life, which revolves around books
and scholastic awards; he provides the excuse she needs to escape from the predictable success-
oriented behavior of Santosh’s mom and her own husband. When Santosh develops a boy-crush on a
13-year-old Italian boy at the beach, but is too shy to make friends, Nani stages an over-the-top drama
that gives the two boys something to talk about and a chance to get to know each other.
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Seventy-Six Dollars and Forty-Nine Cents (A Story In Verse) Kwame Alexander Pg 161 Approx
Reading Time: 25
7 th grade “Monk” writes an entertaining if-only-slightly-fictional memoir in poetic verse in which he
accidentally develops the ability to read others’ thoughts. This gives Monk a certain celebrity; where he
once had been “uncool” he might now have a chance to impress the school’s slightly stuck-up beauty,
“Angel.”
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Sometimes a Dream Needs a Push Walter Dean Myers Pg 213 Approx Reading Time: 19
After the accident and the surgeries, Chris cannot walk; his dad blames himself and is a bit distant.
Chris is invited to play wheelchair basketball on a church team. If they can do well against a visiting
team, they will be invited to join the league. Chris’s dad, who was once a pro basketball player in
Europe, becomes increasingly involved, scouting the opposing team, helping coach the team, even
learning to shoot baskets from a wheelchair himself.
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| Discussion topics for before reading: |
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When you read or listen to books, can you imagine yourself as the lead character in the story?
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What things make it easier for you to do this?
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When you read stories about people that are very different from you, are you able to learn from those differences?
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Do you think stories can help people think of ways that they might change the world? (one story in this collection reminds us that once girls were not taught to read)
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Which superpower would you choose? How would you write a story about having this super-power?
Vocabulary:
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Transform: change from one thing to another
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Strive: make effort to achieve or to gain
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Pendejo: (Spanish) a stupid or contemptible person
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Crass: lacking sensitivity, refinement, or intelligence
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Banter: friendly exchange of teasing
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Blackball: secretly reject someone from entering a privileged group
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Prejudice: preconceived or biased opinion not based on facts or reason
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Bleachers: cheap bench seats at a sports arena, typically outside and uncovered
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Ancestral: belonging to or inherited from an ancestor
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Raucous: harsh and loud noise
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Billow: fill with air and swell outward
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Chamber Pot: A bowl kept in a bedroom to be used as a toilet at night
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Sampan: (Asian) a small boat with oar(s) at the rear
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Cranium: the part of the skull that covers the brain
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Signature: distinctive mark or manner
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Origami: a method of folding paper to make a recognizable object
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Choctaw: the third-largest Indian nation in the United States, in the Oklahoma area
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Bohpoli: small mischievous people of Choctaw folklore
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Naloosa Chitto: (Choctaw) big black creature or big hairy man from folklore
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Anthropologist: the study of human beings and their ancestors
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Couture: fashionable made-to-measure clothes
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Taunt: a remark made to anger or hurt someone
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Valedictorian: the student that has the highest grades of the class
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Smoldering: burning with smoke but without flame
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| Discussion topics for during/after reading: |
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How where the characters in these stories similar to you? Or different from you?
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Did you enjoy the differences and/or similarities?
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Which story / character was your favorite? Why?
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| Craft ideas: |
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Make a book: The kids can make their own paper booklet and write their own story to contribute to the collection of diverse stories:
- an easy way to make an 8-page book with one sheet of paper, a few simple folds, and one cut with a scissors can be found in a 1 minute video on YouTube at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21qi9ZcQVto
-the student can write about themselves on the first inside page, the problem or situation that they must deal with on the second, How they did it on the third, and the happy ending on the fourth. (NOTE: the pages may be too small for detail…perhaps enough room for summary ideas)
-a construction paper cover may be glued to the front/back of the book.
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A SIMPLER ALTERNATIVE:
Assist the students in writing their own story on a regular sheet of paper. These stories might follow a simple outline, such as
- identification of the main character
- description of their goal or of the problem or challenge that they face
- the plan or action they take to reach their goal / solve their problem (or their special super power)
- how it all turns out
The page can be taped or stapled inside a folded construction paper cover
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Make a paper plane
-The title of our book, “Flying Lessons…,” refers to the idea that in order to reach the next stage in our growth, as we transform from what we are now to what we will become, we may need to learn a new skill, or skills. Santosh, the boy from the story, feels like he is a “bird in a cage;” in order to reach his true potential he must learn to fly.
-This idea can be modeled by building simple paper airplanes and “learning to fly.”
-A single piece of paper can transform a rainy afternoon into an adventure.
-Two simple planes, each requiring less than 10 folds, can be found on YouTube:
-The simple “dart:” (3 minute video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-rBmbBSGlA
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*Note: These craft ideas are just suggestions.
You can use them, but you don't have to use them.
You can expand upon them, or add your own twist.
Remember, though, that the focus of your time should
not be on the development and execution of a craft;
the focus should be on the read-aloud and the
enjoyment of the book!
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