• Complete, ready to use!
• Book included inside the course!
• Makes reading fun!
• Develops literacy, vocabulary!
• Introduces some history, geography!
• Develops critical thinking!

I taught a literature class in my homeschool co-op using two Steps Literature Guides, Sherlock Holmes stories and The Time Machine. The Literature Guides are very easy to use. The lesson structure made scheduling and assigning homework very simple. We used the lesson questions to stimulate class discussion and I was impressed with the contributions that the students made during class. I look forward to continuing to use Steps products!  L.F., Homeschool Teacher
_____
The great British author of The Jungle Book wrote another masterpiece for his young daughter, and this is it!

Rudyard Kipling is one of the most loved of all writers.  And perhaps the one thing he loved most was his young daughter.  These wild, funny, fictional stories about how different animals came to look as they do are filled with both surprise, and just a hint of Darwin's theory of evolution.

Here's a complete guide that will help your student, ages 7-adult, understand Kipling's clever short tales, first told to his daughter at her bedside, as few readers ever do.

The history of the period of time is explained, so that the student understands why Kipling wrote as he did, and what he was trying to say to his readers about their time (and ours). Kipling's personal history is also explored, and the student relates what he's learned about the writer's life to the stories, and how Kipling's own experience helped him to create his great works. The history of his books, their publishing success, is considered.

Important tools of writing are explored and explained, such as the message of a piece (the idea the author wishes to communicate), plotting, characterization, conflict, language, irony, and the use of surrogate characters representing the author and his views. The student then uses his knowledge of the tools of good story-telling to analyze and understand the story.

No additional materials are needed. The entire text for this short novel is contained in the course.

Before reading each tale, the student looks though the simple, single definition that applies, for every key or difficult word used in that tale. This will allow the student to understand what he reads the first time he reads it. (WARNING – This course does require and develop some serious literacy. ) Locations mentioned in each tale are also listed before the reading starts, and they are located by the student on maps or globes. In this way, the student will know where those places are in the world when encountering them in the story.

After each story, the student is provided numerous exercises which demand cognitive and critical thinking on the student's part. The exercises help make the story more relevant to the student, and increase his understanding of the story and its unique values.

We provide links to film and/or other presentations of the pieces being studied!

This is a complete study guide, one that will delight parents and children alike. Discover this great writer's gift to his own daughter, and shared here with you!