Steig Continued...

Instead of just oogling and drooling over William Steig's work, I should share some excerpts so that you could join in and do the same. As I again read through some of his books, looking for good samples, I found that there would be many other useful ways to utilized his writing in the classroom. Aside from strong vocabulary content, Steig writes with uses various figures of speech and has strong, unconventional ideas for stories. His works are emulating examples of such topics.

Without further ado, I leave you with some excerpts:

The Amazing Bone

The wily fox was not as easily duped as the robbers. He saw no dangerous crocodile. He peered into Pearl's purse, where the sounds seemed to be coming from, and pulled out the bone. "As I live and flourish!" he exclaimed. "A talking bone. I've always wanted to own something of this sort." and he put the bone in his pocket, where it roared and ranted to no avail.

Gorky Rises

Now, in sudden rage, a storm went wild around him. Lightning shattered the sky, thunder banged and bellowed, hailstones battered his body. He was tossed about by gusts of wind so strong they almost ripped his pants off. It was no frolic, and it went on and on until the hail gave way to great slapping raindrops as large as acorns.

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble

The lion came bounding over, sniffed the rock a hundred times, walked around and around it, and went away confused, perplexed, puzzled, and bewildered. "I saw that little donkey as clear as day. Maybe I'm going crazy," he muttered.

Shrek!

Soon he came upon a pesant singing and scything. "You there, varlet," said Shrek. "Why so blithe?"

The peasant mumbled this reply:

"Im happy scything in the rye,

I never stop to wonder why.

I'll hone and scythe until I die.

But no I'm busy. So goodbye."

Dr. De Soto Goes to Africa

At long last, the elephant was able to smile. And giggle. And guffaw. He swung his wife into a frolicsome fandango. Then he devoured a huge meal of raw vegetables, with a bushel of peanuts on the side.

So there you have it. Don't you love the language? Do you have a favorite Steig book? Is it one of the above, or another? What do/would you use his books for?