The Whipping Boy - A Field Guide to Classroom Libraries

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Jemmy serves as the "Whipping Boy" to Prince Brat, and suffers the punishments for the prince's misbehavior due to an ancient law that forbids princes from ...
The Whipping Boy

    

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Sid Fleischman

   Jemmy serves as the "Whipping Boy" to Prince Brat, and suffers the punishments for the prince's misbehavior due to an ancient law that forbids princes from being touched. Jemmy's dreams of running away are realized one day when Prince Brat decides to sneak away from the castle in an attempt to get his father, the king, to notice him. Their plan goes awry when they are captured by two villains, Hold-Your-Nose Billy and Cutwater, who in turn try to get a ransom out of the king. Through escaping, meeting new friends outside the castle and trying to return, each character learns lessons about himself that make lasting changes in his character.

    



  Peter Sis &' "  Green Willow Books, 1986  816710384 #  (

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        The Whipping Boy has 90 pages. While some chapter headings signal important developments in a straightforward manner, such as "The Ransom Note" and "The Chase," many contain strange usages or puns. For example, the first chapter heading, "In which we observe a hair-raising event" concerns a prank in which members of the king's court lose their wigs. The title in this case does not really give an easily identifiable clue as to what is about to transpire. Others, such as the title of Chapter 11, "Containing a great deal of shouting," which is about an argument between the two main characters, while more direct, can still be difficult for some readers. There are 10 illustrations that accurately depict what transpires in the plot, but they are not always matched up with corresponding text on the opposite page. There is an author's note at the end of the book informing the reader that the practice of maintaining a whipping boy is true. "Some royal households of past centuries did keep whipping boys to suffer the punishments due a misbehaving prince." This is a remarkable fact to many readers.  !"    Many of the characters speak in an approximation of Old English, for example: "Catchpenny rogues! I will not be exchanged for such a trifle. My mere weight? A paltry treasure you could carry on you shoulder? How dare you insult me!" If students are not equipped with strategies for dealing with this particular dialect, they may get bogged down. Much of the plot turns on cases of mistaken identity and the switches happen quickly. If, for example, one misses that the robbers mistakenly think that Jemmy is the prince, they might think that all of the robbers' comments directed to "His Lordship" are, in fact, aimed at the real prince, instead of Jemmy. There are several distinct settings where the action takes place. The story A Field Guide to the Classroom Library, Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Heinemann, ©2002 Teachers College, Columbia University; http://www.heinemann.com/fieldguides

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moves from the castle, to the woods, to the open road and so on. Each change in setting marks a new development and plot point. If the change in locale is missed it could lead to confusion. # " $ %  This book provides many experiences in dealing with dialect. Some teachers choose to have children read the parts out loud until they get the flow of the sounds of the speech. This is especially true of the heavily accented speech of the villains Cutwater and Hold-Your-Nose Billy. The ungrammatical way these characters speak-"Now let me reckon out a safe spot"-can throw many readers. If the book is used as a read aloud or in a small group, conversation can focus around why an author might choose to use dialect, even though it can be difficult to read. The text is also full of many medieval words, such as scragged, plague and footmen. Most of these words appear in such a way that they can be figured out through context. For example, "I'll be lucky if they don't whip me to the bone. More likely I'll be hung from the gallows. Scragged for sure!" In this case, the difficult word's meaning can be approximated, if not figured outright, by the way it is used. Both main characters, and Prince Brat in particular, go through dramatic changes from the beginning of the story to the end. Many teachers spend time having readers create vivid examinations of character at the beginning of the book, then observe how the rest of the narrative holds up to these initial impressions. The prince transforms from being a selfish, spoiled and thoughtless individual to one who is caring, respectful of others and who has learned the value of being honorable. Jemmy learns to see past his initial dislike of the prince and to value and appreciate him as a friend. All students are struck by the grave injustice of one person suffering the punishment for another's actions. Besides relating this to their own experiences, many students are shocked by the fact that this actually happened in the past. This can lead to conversation on the purpose and worth of punishment and the connection between responsibility and consequence.  

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A Field Guide to the Classroom Library, Lucy Calkins and the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Heinemann, ©2002 Teachers College, Columbia University; http://www.heinemann.com/fieldguides

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