Extension Material for Skeleton Creek! POE & THE RAVEN!

As mentioned in a previous post, we have been reading the novel Skeleton Creek.

In this novel, there are references to short stories by Edgar Allen Poe (House of Usher, The Raven...and there are more to come!)

Nearer to Halloween, we will be reading the famous story (and listening to the radio play retell) of Poe' The Tell Tale Heart and looking more closely at poem The Raven.

In the meantime, I'm asking students to extend their learning at home by:

a) reading about the author Edgar Allen Poe here on Wikipedia
b) watching this you tube video retell of his poem 'The Raven' (as read by Vincent Price) OR try this version (with text) as read by Christopher Walken
c) watch this youtube animated version of the poem (I love how this 'ordinary youtuber'  has been inspired to retell the poem visually)

Here is the full text version if you'd also like to read it.

Poe has inspired countless authors...and as become a part of our culture.  Even the writers of The Simpson's included The Raven in one of their Halloween episodes. 

Patrick Carmen, author of Skeleton Creek, has similarly been inspired. He is including Poe references VERY deliberately in his book. They are there for a purpose and I'd like us to go deeper into what that purpose might be.

The 'raven' seems to hold specific significance  It has been mentioned more than once and in fact, a future book in the series is called 'The Raven'.

We can't really discuss it properly without understanding Poe, who he is, his body of work...and his poem, The Raven.

Students, next week we will be shifting our literacy focus to writing for a few days....but we will return to reading by weeks end (hopefully, by Thursday)...so please review this material at home to support future in class discussion before that time!

Thank you!