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Sally Murphy, Australian author

Readalong Post #9: 10 Simple Things to do with Toppling

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Thanks again to everyone who’s been reading along with me. Today’s post is the last focusing on Toppling – and tomorrow we move on to Roses are Blue. And that means that it will  just ONE WEEK until the release of Worse Things. I am so excited about introducing my newest book-baby to the world.

For today, though, I want to share some things you can do with  Toppling. These aren’t teaching notes – you’ll find more formal teaching ideas here and here. Rather than replicate those, the following ten ideas are more simple things you can do on your own, with your family, or in a classroom. So, here’s the list:

  1. Read it. The number one thing you can do with any book is simply read it. On your own, with a friend, at the same time as the author (as with this readalong). In bed, on a couch, out in the garden, or out loud in the classroom (teachers remember no one is ever too old to be read TO). And sometimes, just reading the book is all that’s needed  – no worksheets, comprehension questions or anything.
  2. Journal about it. Although I’ve said in number one that comprehension questions are not always necessary, sometimes it is nice to have time to really reflect on a book – either as a whole or, after each reading session. Grab your journal – if you haven’t got one, now’s a good time. Any notebook or exercises will do – and a pen and just write about your reactions to what you’ve just read. How did it make you feel? Which bits di you like? Which bits annoyed you? What do you think will happen next?
  3. Vote for the best cover. As I posted about here, Toppling has had three different covers and two different tiles, in the three countries it’s been published in. After you’ve read the book, have a look at the three covers and decide which one you prefer. If your friends or classmates have read it too, you might set up a poll.
  4. After you’ve decided which of the published covers you like best, you might like to design a fourth cover. What do you think should be on it? You might borrow ideas from the published covers, or you might have a better idea. If you post it on Instagram or elsewhere online, send me a message and I’ll tell you what I think.
  5. Write a review. A book review can be long and detailed, or it can be really short. There are reviews of Toppling here at Goodreads, and also here and here to give you some ideas.
  6. Grab some dominoes and set up a topple of your own. It doesn’t have to be as big as this one:

Got no dominoes? Maybe you could try a book topple instead!

Or be creative. What else could you topple? Maybe don’t waste your biscuits, but this is pretty epic:

 If you do set up a topple and post it anywhere online, let me know and I’ll watch and comment. – here’s one here:

  1. Play a game of dominoes. Although John in the book doesn’t ever play the actual dominoes game, there’s no reason you can’t. Don’t own any dominoes? You can print some out here. You can make them stronger by gluing them to some cardboard.
  2. Write a poem. On page 15 of Toppling John writes a poem introducing his best mate Dominic. It’s basically a list poem. On pages 18 and 19 he shares shorter poems about his other three friends. Read these to get some ideas, then write a poem introducing yourself or one of your friends.
  3. One of the questions I am most often asked about Toppling is what happens next. After you’ve read it, why not write a new chapter? You get to decide what happens next.
  4. Ask the author (that’s me!) a question. You can post it in the comments below, email me through this contact form, or ask the question on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. I love questions – they keep me on my toes.

I’d love to hear how you go with any of these activities – or if you have better ones to suggest.

Thanks for reading along with me.

Readalong Post #7: The Writing of Toppling

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Welcome back to my Readalong. On Friday I shared the opening chapter of Toppling and the wonderful book trailer. Today I’d like to chat about why and how I wrote Toppling.

I talked last week about the writing of Pearl Verses the World and how it flowed as if Pearl was telling me her story. After I’d written Pearl and, amazingly, got word that Walker Books would publish it, my thoughts turned to what to write next. I’d found the verse novel form such a satisfying way to write, that I knew I wanted to write another one. But writing about Pearl had been emotionally draining, so I wondered if I could write something a little lighter.

I started with two things – a character and a hobby. I wanted to use a male main character to make sure I focused on using a different voice. I decided I wanted my boy to be one of those kids who  isn’t sporty or super smart or super popular or super anything really. At the time my own kids were, among other things, spending time making up domino topples. We seemed to have acquired over the years several sets of dominoes and, although no one ever played the game,  we had a lot of fun setting up domino topples. Maybe not quite as good as this world record topple:

So I had a kid who loved domino toppling, and that was about it. I didn’t know what  the conflict was going to be, but as I ran through ideas, I decided that if Pearl Verses the World was about a girl who felt she didn’t have any friends, then this new character should have a group of friends. And, when I started writing and introducing those friends, I knew that this is where the conflict would come from. Because, very soon, it emerged that John’s best friend had a problem, which meant John had a problem too. In the book John claims that Dominic is his best friend ‘not just because his name sounds like domino’,  but I have a confession to make: I chose the name because it sounded a bit like domino.  And it is more than his name that is like John’s hobby – because poor Dom is in danger of toppling, metaphorically.

It was at about this point that I realised this story was not going to be lighter  than Pearl Verses the World and, as I wrote and discovered that Dominic was very sick, I wondered whether this was a story I could handle.  And I spent a lot of time worrying about the ending – both for the sake of my characters and for my young readers.

I won’t give a spoiler and tell you how it ends, but I can tell you that there is some hope in my ending, because this is how I believe stories should end. With hope. Not neatly wrapped up, but with some sign of good to come, at the very least. But I’ll also tell you that this ending has led to a lot of questions. I’ve had letters and emails, and kids in schools and festivals all over Australia ask me what happens next.  And the answer is, I would only be sure of that if I wrote a sequel – which isn’t planned.

Back to the writing. I found the writing process perhaps less straightforward than for Pearl Verses the World, but, as with Pearl, I did feel that the main character, in this case John, was leading me through the story and sharing events with me. My job was to shape the words. When I didn’t know what would happen next I stopped writing for the day and, when I sat down the next day, I always knew what was next – although, as I’ve already said above – I did have a tousle over where and how to end it.

Eventually though I settled on the ending and, after rewriting and editing, off it went to Walker Books who, once more, said yes.  And, a year after Pearl was published, Toppling was too. That was ten years ago. And what a ten years it has been!

 

Do you have questions? I’d love to answer them. Comment below. Or post them on my social media – Twitter, Facebook or Instagram (#toppling or #readwithsally) , and I’ll answer them there. Thanks again for being part of my Readalong.

Teacher Tuesday: Using Toppling in a Year 6 Classroom

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Welcome to the sixth edition of Teacher Tuesday, where I match one of my books to a year level, and offer some activities for sharing the book in the classroom. In previous weeks I shared activities for Pearl Verses the World, Looking Up, Do Not Forget Australia, Snowy’s Christmas and The Floatingest Frog.

This week, continuing my focus on verse novels, I am focusing on my second verse novel, Toppling.

Using Toppling in a Year Six Classroom

Toppling, by Sally Murphy, illustrations by Rhian Nest James

Published by Walker Books, 2010
ISBN: 9781921529429 (Paperback)
Format 128 page Paperback, RRP $16.99

US and UK Editions also available.

Blurb:  John’s friend Dominic becomes ill, John’s world begins to topple. A warm story about the importance of friendship.

Sally’s Recommended Grade Levels: Year 4- Adult, but these suggestions focus on Year 6.

Themes/Topics:

  • Friendship
  • Belonging
  • Childhood Illness
  • Family
  • Empathy and Compassion
  • Poetry
  • School

Publisher teaching notes available HERE.

Curriculum Links:

Year 6 English

  1. Make connections between students’ own experiences and those of characters and events represented in texts drawn from different historical, social and cultural contexts (ACELT1630)
  2. Analyse and evaluate similarities and differences in texts on similar topics, themes or plots (ACELT 1614)
    • Before reading: set up individual journals OR a special section is students’ writing journals. During reading: after reading each section, have students write about their responses to the story so far. Although you could provide questions for guidance, if possible allow students to write about any aspect of the story that appeals to them. After each writing session, allow time for group/class discussion, encouraging links to students’ own experiences.
    • Ask students to identify other books which deal with childhood illness from their previous reading, OR have a wide range of these available in the classroom. There is a list HERE you could use a starting point. In groups, have students brainstorm similarities and differences between Toppling and the books they have read. This could work either with each group working on a different book, or with each group allocated a book, or with reference to a book previously read as a class book. Students to then prepare a report back to the class, explaining similarities and differences.
    • Focus on hobbies. Toppling deals with some difficult topics. Some work on the lighter aspects of the book can help alleviate this and offer varied activities. Discuss John’s toppling hobby, view big topples on Youtube and, if possible, have dominoes available the classroom for either free time or for science and mathematics activities. Have students talk about their own hobbies- especially non-digital ones. Students can prepare mini-presentations which explain their hobby, or an unusual hobby they have learnt about.

http://t.dgm-au.com/c/328195/69171/1880?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.booktopia.com.au%2Ftoppling-sally-murphy%2Fprod9780763659219.html

  1. Identify, describe, and discuss similarities and differences between texts, including those by the same authoror illustrator, and evaluate characteristics that define an author’s individual style (ACELT1616)
  2. Analyse how textstructures and language features work together to meet the purpose of a text (ACELY1711)
  3. Analyse strategies authors use to influence readers (ACELY1801)
  4. Understand how authors often innovate on text structures and play with language features to achieve particular aesthetic, humorous and persuasive purposes and effects (ACELA1518)
  • During reading introduce students to the terms ‘free verse’ and ‘verse novel’. After reading use groups to establish similarities and differences between verse novels and prose novels. Discuss findings.
  • After reading, revisit and analyse key scenes: p. 9 (opening page), pp 43-46 and pp 15-17 contrasted with p.62-63. Have students focus on which techniques are used in these scenes which might be poetic rather than narrative techniques, and how these techniques influence our connection and reaction to the events. Report or journal writing: how has Sally Murphy used poetry to explore the difficult topic of childhood cancer?
  • A term unit could encapsulate reading of one or both of my other two verse novels, Roses are Blue and Pearl Verses the World, allowing time for examination of similarities and differences between the three books via group work, or class boards. A verbal or digital presentation examining Sally Murphy’s Individual Style could meet other learning outcomes in multiliteracies, technology or speaking.
  1. Identify the relationship between words, sounds, imageryand language patterns in narratives and poetry such as ballads, limericks and free verse (ACELT1617)
  2. Createliterary texts that adapt or combine aspects of texts students have experienced in innovative ways (ACET1618)
  3. Experiment with textstructures and language features and their effects in creating literary texts, for example, using imagery, sentence variation, metaphor and word choice (ACELT1800)
  4. Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive texts, choosing and experimenting with textstructures, language features, images and digital resources appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1714)
  • During or after reading revise or introduce devices including simile, metaphor, personification, onomatopoeia, repetition, tricolon. Use examples from the book, or have students identify them in the book. Experiment with each form either in journals or on worksheets or display boards. If you have space on your pin up boards, have places where students can write examples of each device on strips of paper or sticky notes and build up a bank of examples.
  • Examine the elements of free verse poetry (this link here is a simple starting point). Write lots of poems: there are many great lesson ideas on this site, from Australian poets.
  • After reading and examining author style, have students experiment with writing about their own lives in free verse. Draw on journal writing tasks completed during reading. Structure this activity by allowing time for discussion ingroups of possible topics, experimenting with how to tell veracious parts using poetic devices, then drafting and revising poems.
  • Have students write poems mimicking my style to tell a key event from the point of view of another character: Tess, Dominic, Mum, Miss Timms etc. Produce a class collection entitled Toppling: The Untold Story.

 

Other suggestions for using Toppling in your classroom include:

  • Toppling can be used as a springboard to building empathy, and to understand differences between sympathy and empathy, outside of the literacy classroom.
  • Show students the cover and blurb for the UK edition of the book, which is titled John and Dom, and the US, still titled Toppling but with some cover differences. Explain that the story inside is the same: itis only the cover that has changed. Discuss students’ preferences. Have them design a new cover for the book, or a different cover for another book they have read.
  • Email the author (that’s me!) Your students can write to me through this website, and share their responses or ask questions.

Related Books (these are all verse novels)

Mostly, I’d love to remind you that while I love to see my books used in classrooms, I also love to see kids just enjoying them. Reading a book should be pleasurable – whether it’s being used in the classroom or not.  So allow your students to enjoy reading Toppling.

If you find this useful, or have any suggestions or comments, do leave a comment. And, if there is a particular book or year level or topic that you would like covered in a future edition of Teacher Tuesday, let me know.

Toppling!

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My character John (from Toppling) loves domino toppling. But I’m not sure he has ever created a topple as awesome as this one:

Hevesh5 is amazing. Maybe one day, John. Maybe one day.

topplinghighres

Some Big Topples

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If, like John in my book Toppling, you are fascinated by domino toppling, you might be wowed by this amazing topple I came across recently. 128000 dominoes and two world records.

Or, you might like this one – which has a whopping 500 000 dominoes and three world records. I prefer the first simply because of the film quality, which is a shame because there are some amazing feats of toppling in this one:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=__eAnV0gwwM

John doesn’t quite get to this standard of toppling – but he is pretty good – and I bet he’d love to be part of a world record!toppling

sallymurphy.com.au