Harold, the narrator of the story, is hysterical! He is just like my dog, Romeo, who begs for food 24-7! And Chester, the cat, oh my. My students and I fall off our chairs when read about his shenanigans! He thinks that the new bunny in the house is a vampire and is determined to get rid of a vampire no matter how crazy he looks! I've called my own cat Chester by mistake when he acts a little crazy. He wears garlic around his neck, tries to pound the bunny with a steak..yes steak not stake, and wears a towel around his neck to look like a vampire cape to get everyone's attention. The poor bunny can't get a break so Harold steps in to help him. It is a must read! Teachers, there are so many different reading skills you can pull from this book. As far as vocabulary, it is packed with new words for upper elementary so I would stop and explain or help students use context clues when we crossed a difficult word.
Here are some great ideas to use with this book!
- Genre discussion- Legends and Mysteries
- Make an advertisement for a lost bunny
- Point of view of the different characters.
- Predict what Chester might do next.
- Inference opportunities are throughout
- Cause and Effect
- Compare and Contrast characters
- Sequence Events
- Text Connections
- Summarize an event using transition words
- Persuade your parents to allow you to get a pet
- Concrete Poem of a white tomato!
- 5W's- Who, What, When, Where, Why
- Homonyms- Steak/Stake
- Write a Parody of one of the events in the story
- Character Traits/ Feeling words
- How did Chester's character change from the beginning of the story to the end?
- Figurative Language- Simile, Metaphor, Alliteration, Personification, Idiom, Onomatopoeia
- Lots of Personification!
- Analyze quotes: Cruel to be kind. By hook or by crook.
- Write a Diamante- change from one character to the next
- Explain the name of the chapters
- Research- Rabbit's diet, Transylvania, Animal Fangs, Vampire Bats
Find the book HERE.
Do you want all of these reading skills and chapter by chapter questions along with a quiz, vocabulary test and unit test? Click the sample below!
