Mind Map of story

Chester the

Squirrel

Who?

What?

When?

Why?

Where?

Big elm tree

Winter Cold

snowing

No food

Secret nut

supply

Chester falls not

hurt

Snow is fun

SnowballsSledging

Snow men

Chester squirrel

Timmy door mouse

grumpy

Dislikes snow

meanDoesn’t share food

Happyfun

Gives bag of nuts away

Changes message

When you

get to know

people you

realise they

are nice.

Chester has fun in the

snow

Know about

nuts but

don’t steal

them.

Moral of story?

forest

Story Review StructureIntroduction (start)

Setting (where?)

Characters (who?)

Theme (ideas)

Conclusion (ending)

Topic SentenceElaborationLink Sentence

Topic SentenceElaborationLink Sentence

Topic SentenceElaborationLink Sentence

AudiencePersonal Opinion

TitleAuthorBlurb

Story ReviewThe story I have chosen is ‘Chester the Squirrel’ and is taken from the book ‘A Story a Day, 365 Animal Stories and Rhymes (multiple authors)’. This is a great short story written about a nasty squirrel who realises that life is better when you make friends and have fun.

Chester the squirrel is not a very nice character. He does not like to spend time with the other animals. Today, he is even more grumpy than normal and writes a sign outside his house warning the other animals not to have snowball fights near his home. He is also very mean and does not like to share his food with them. Timmy Dormouse, however, is very friendly and easy going and comes along the path whistling. The two become unlikely friends.

Title/AuthorBlurb

Topic Sentence

Elaboration/examples

Link sentence to next paragraph

Story ReviewThe story I have chosen is ‘Chester the Squirrel’ and is taken from the book ‘A Story a Day, 365 Animal Stories and Rhymes (multiple authors)’. This is a great short story written about a nasty squirrel who realises that life is better when you make friends and have fun.The story is set in a forest near a big elm tree on a cold winter’s day after it has been snowing. Some of the animals are playing games like sledging, snowballs and making snow men but not Chester the squirrel. Chester the squirrel prefers to stay indoors on his own until he realises he has run out of nuts.Chester the squirrel is not a very nice character. He does not like to spend time with the other animals. Today, he is even more grumpy than normal and writes a sign outside his house warning the other animals not to have snowball fights near his home. He is also very mean and does not like to share his food with them. Timmy Dormouse, however, is very friendly and easy going and comes along the path whistling. The two become unlikely friends.Chester jumps out and trips but does not hurt himself. He then starts to realise that the snow is quite nice. Timmy tells him that snow is great for sledging, sliding, building snowmen and best of all, having snow ball fights. Timmy throws a snowball at Chester and Chester realises how much fun it is. Chester shows Timmy his secret supply of nuts.

Story ReviewChester is surprised when Timmy says that the animals know all about his nuts but never take them. Then Chester feels ashamed that he mistrusted the other animals. He gives a sack of nuts to Timmy and decides to invite the other animals to play snowballs with him. But first, he goes and rewrites his notice inviting everyone to have a snowball fight with him. The moral of this story is that when you get to know strangers you find that you have lots of similar interests and that your life becomes more pleasant as you have more people to play with. This story is aimed at young readers from 10 years old and above. I really enjoyed reading this story and it reminded me to try to make friends with as many people as possible.

The End

• Questions?