This is a Good Story
Written by Adam Lehrhaupt and illustrated by Magali Le Huche

Look at the front cover

Identify everything featured in the illustration.
  • Describe the action.
  • Examine the colour choices and style of drawing. Describe the tone and mood the artisitic techniques establish.
  • Name the location of this drawing. Identify the clues used to discover the setting.
  • How are the people and animals in this illustration feeling? How do you know?
  • The book’s title is This is a Good Story. Determine the connection between the title and the action featured in the illustration. Tell how the action suggests ‘good’ things.
  • Predict what This is a Good Story is going to be about. 

Read the story and then afterwards discuss some of the following:

1. Our Story begins with Hero and Heroine.

A hero and/or heroine are typified as brave adventurers. They are known for their bold and courageous deeds. Explain why the narrator suggested that this story begin with gallant characters such as these.
  • Predict what Hero and Heroine want. Determine their deepest desires.
  • Identify details in the illustrations that depict Hero and Heroine’s character. Tell what their costumes show about their role in the Story. Describe what their expressions reveal about how they feel about the quest to Save the Day.
  • The beginning of a Story is called the exposition. This part of a Story is where readers learn which characters are important to the Plot. Explain why it is important for this Story to begin with strong, believeable characters such as Hero and Heroine. 

2. What is Conflict, you ask?

 The word conflict is defined as a controversy or struggle between differing principles or interests. Basically, it’s about people or things that do not get along with each other and how they (hopefully) problems are solved. Tell why a story needs Conflict.
  • Explain what a Story would be like without Conflict. What if all of the characters were easy to get along with? What if the weather was warm and lovely all of the time? What if there was no struggle to contend with in the Plot? Would the Story be interesting then? Why or why not?
  • Determine ways that Conflict challenges characters.
  • Tell how Conflict serves to create an interesting Plot, which, in the end, leads to the telling and illustrating of a good Story.

3. That’s not an Evil Overlord! Come on. That’s barely a Creepy Sidekick.

The character of the Evil Overlord is the antagonist of the Story. The antagonist defies, challenges, and all-around causes problems for protagonists. Determine why the narrator feels that the girl’s first attempt to draw the Evil Overlord was not threatening enough.
  • The word evil means wicked, villainous, and beastly. Explain how creating an antagonist that is truly evil serves to develop Conflict in a Story.
  • Explain how a menacing anatagonist like the Evil Overloard would challenge and bring out the best in our protagonists, Hero and Heroine.

4. Seriously? What kind of Action is that? This is a dramatic point in the Plot. Our Conflict is building. The Action here will determine the course of the rest of the Story

  • The word dramatic means exciting, breathtaking, and thrilling. Determine why the narrator felt that, while it was a good thing to do, Hero and Heroine’s efforts to clean up after the Evil Overlord’s capture of the Townsfolk was not an example of dramatic Action.
  • Consider the phrase “Our Conflict is building”. Determine why it is important to keep the Conflict building, rather than slow it down by writing or illustrating a calm scene at this key point in the Story.
  • The word action is defined as energy, liveliness, and a flurry or force. Explain why it is important for the protagonists to be truly active during this dramatic point in the story. Discuss how their actions define the outcome of the story.

5. No, no, NO! Labeled as in clearly marked. With a sign. 

The definition of climax is the highlight, the peak, the turning point of a Story. The Climax is the point where all the Conflict comes together in a dramatic way.
  • Analyze the Climax of This is a Good Story.
  • Indentify how Hero and Heroine’s challenges have led them to this critical plot point. Discuss the high stakes of danger the Townsfolk are experiencing.
  • It is important for authors and illustrators to be very clear about important details when telling stories. Explain why the narrator instructed the girl to “clearly mark” the dungeon “with a sign”. Discuss why clearly labeling the dungeon is critical to the Climax of the story.
  • If the dungeon was not clearly labeled, then what might happen to the Plot? Tell how clearly stating this important detail helps to keep the Conflict strong. 

Victorious, Hero and Heroine join the Townsfolk at The End.
There is much rejoicing.
Wow!
This is a Good Story. Or, is it?

The final scene of a Story is called the resolution, the ending place in the Story. Explore this Story’s surprise ending. Discuss how a very minor character, the not-so-Creepy Sidekick introduced early in the story, contributed to the surprise ending.
  • Notice that the surprise ending is told with illustrations, only. Explain how the use of illustrations expresses the girl’s character.
  • Discuss how the surprise ending was an expression of the girl’s intention for the story, rather than the narrator’s direction. Explain how her ending serves to keep the Conflict and Plot moving, even after the book is closed.