1-13-16
Dear Mrs. Flemming,
Last week you asked me to compare a personality trait of Harry Potter’s
to one of mine. Harry is mischievous and so I am I. For example, Harry uses
his Marauder’s Map to sneak around the castle. I sometimes sneak around my
house and spy on my sisters.
I just read Steamboat Annie and the Thousand Pound Catfish.
Steamboat Annie and Jefferson Jackson were fighting about how to get rid of
Ernie, the cranky catfish. Annie fished Ernie out and hurled him all the way to
California.
The sub-genre of this book is a tall tale. I could tell just from the title
that this is a tall tale. It is not possible to have a 1,000 pound catfish. Another
piece of evidence is the town’s singing cow. Cows do not sing in real life. A
third piece of evidence is that Annie fought with Ernie for a year and a half.
How could she possibly eat or sleep?
The sub-genre of a tall tale is a story that has some true parts. However,
parts of the story have been made up or exaggerated. Steamboat Annie was
probably a real person. But she could not have done all of the things the text
said. For example, she wasn’t born singing and she couldn’t use a walnut tree
for a fishing pole. These exaggerations show that this book was a tall tale.
Sincerely,
(name)