Top Ten Text 5

Seuss. Green Eggs and Ham. New York: Beginner, 1960. Print.

The eternal story of whether or not Sam-I-Am can convince his good buddy the skeptic to try this odd colored, yet possibly delicious meal. Follow! The Skeptic as he does not eat them on a boat, in a moat, with fox, or on the docks. See! Sam try, and try, and try, and try some more to get The Skeptic to take a bite, just a mite, if he, could he, would he try it in spite? Finally! The Skeptic takes a bite, realizes that junk is good, and then has them in space, at my place, and during a race.

This is a great book to use to talk about theme. For me, it’s easy to show that the plot is Sam-I-Am and The Skeptic on their merry chase, but the theme is to try new things, because you might actually like what you try. It’s a great book to inspire discussion, it was a book my jaded 9^th graders liked having read to them, and one that many of them could at least link with theme if they couldn’t always get theme in other works. There are other literary terms utilized in the book, I just happened to use it for theme, but I could see myself breaking it for rhyme scheme or imagery. Oh! The places you’ll go with this book…