The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van Allsburg

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The Garden of Abdul Gasazi by Chris Van
Allsburg

• Theme 3

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Awards

• Caldecott Honor Award
• ALA Notable Childrens Book
• Boston Globe-Horn Book Award
• New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year

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Genre Fantasy

• A fantasy is a type of incredible story that has
  characters and events that could occur in real
  life combined with those that could not.
• Something that is incredible is amazing,
  unbelievable, or not likely to happen.

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Summary

• One day Alan is walking Fritz, Miss Hesters
  dog. Fritz disappears into a garden owned by
  Abdul Gasazi. Gasazi tells Alan that Fritz is now
  a duck. Alan believes him, only to find that
  Fritz has already returned home-as a dog.
  Gasazis story was a trick-or was it?

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Background Information

• Gardens can be molded and shaped by clipping the
  branches of the shrubbery and bushes into shapes
  and designs.

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Key Concept

• unusual gardens

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Key Vocabulary

• awesome
• convinced
• disappeared
• discovered
• incredible
• impossible

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awesome
causing a feeling of wonder, fear, and respect
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convinced
made to do, believe, or feel certain about
something
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disappeared
passed out of sight vanished
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discovered
found learned
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incredible
too unlikely to be believed astonishing or
amazing
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impossible
not able to happen or exist
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Strategy Focus Monitor/Clarify

• We monitor and clarify as we read to help us
  understand.
• This strategy helps us to check ourselves to be
  sure we are understanding what we are reading.
• Reread or read ahead to clarify any clues along
  the way.

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Strategy Focus Monitor/Clarify
Lets try it!

• Read page 352. Do you understand why this story
  is titled The Garden of Abdul Gasazi?

or
Read page 352. Why did the author include the
information about Alans hat?
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Comprehension Skill Focus Story Structure

• When you understand story structure, you identify
  and describe the main elements of the story.
• The main elements are
• characters-the main people (and animals) in the
  story
• setting-where and when the story takes place
• plot-the sequence of story events includes a
  problem (at the beginning) and how the problem
  was solved (at the end).

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Graphic Organizer
Fill in the organizer with details from the story.
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Meet the Author and Illustrator

• When Chris Van Allsburg was growing up, he had
  no idea he would one day be an artist. He did
  enjoy art, however, especially drawing cartoon
  characters. His favorite time was the two days a
  week when he had art class at school. He even
  went to school sick if it was an art day! As he
• grew older, Van Allsburg's interest in art
  faded a little bit. But after high school, he
  enrolled in an art school, mostly because he
  thought the classes would be easy. He was wrong
  about that! The classes were long and
• hard, and he felt that the other students
  had more art experience than he did. But he
  discovered that he still loved art as much as he
  had when he was younger. He mainly studied
  sculpture, and he went on to get a Master's
• degree in sculpture after college.
• Van Allsburg wasn't a sculptor for very
  long, though. Just for fun, he began "drawing
  little pictures" at home. "It was either that or
  watch TV," he remembers. In time, he thought of a
  story to go with the pictures. That story became
  his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. The
  dog Van Allsburg created in that book has
  appeared in most of his other books since then.
  The dog, Fritz, is special to Van Allsburg,
  because he is based on a real dog Van Allsburg
  once knew. "It's just a little thing I do to
  amuse myself, I guess to always put the dog in
  the book as a little homage to him," he says.
  (from www.eduplace.com)

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Link to Houghton Mifflin

• If you enjoyed reading The Garden of Abdul
  Gasazi and would like to check out some more
  information and activities, click below to go to
  www.eduplace.com, Houghton Mifflins web site.

Click Here!