Study Guides
Fright Night |
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Tim Wynne-Jones
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| Click here for print friendly version. | |
Grade: Suitable for grades 9 to 12
Two Canadian authors have deliberately set out to write tales that leave readers on the edge of their chairs, send shivers down their spines and take their imaginations to the edge of reason. Both these multi-award winning authors share goosebump moments with their readers, and talk about why being frightened is fascinating to us, the borders between fright and horror, fear of the known and the unknown, and making the unimaginable real enough to keep us turning pages.
Curriculum Connection
- Students will write fictional narratives that create suspense through movement, gestures, and sensory details.
ACTIVITIES
- After reading Goto (Half World) and Wynne-Jones’ books, ask students to highlight scenes which made them clench their teeth, hang in suspense and anticipation or that had them on the edge of their seats.
- Ask students to analyze how the author created the tension, using doubt.
- Prompt students to write a suspenseful scene. Provide students with the following prompts as they write and periodically share their responses. First, give everyone the same starter sentence, “He thought he heard someone in the house”. Next, prompt their writing with the suggestions below:
- a) What was the disturbing sound he heard?
- b) What was the character thinking? Write down a question that was going through his mind.
- c) What did the character smell that was out of the ordinary?
- d) What memory did the scent remind him of?
- e) Connect that memory to the present moment.
- f) Have the character notice something different in the house, something also out of the ordinary.
- g) Raise another question in the character’s mind.
- h) What does this character really want to do right now? Perhaps he is afraid to do it?
- i) Have the character do something, take action.
- j) Put an obstacle in his path; make him retreat for a breath.
- k) Go back to the memory again and let it give him the courage to go forward.
- l) Let the character move closer to the disturbing sound/scent/sight.
- m) Let the character discover what’s really going on. Perhaps it’s nothing to sweat about, or maybe it is...
EVALUATION
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