“The Garden of Abdul Gasazi” by Chris Van Allsburg

1. “The Garden of Abdul Gasazi”by Chris Van Allsburg Theme 3

2. Awards • Caldecott Honor Award • ALA Notable Children’s Book • Boston Globe-Horn Book Award • New York Times Best Illustrated Books of the Year

3. Genre: Fantasy • A fantasy is a type of incredible story that has characters and events that could occur in real life combined with those that could not. • Something that is incredible is amazing, unbelievable, or not likely to happen.

4. Summary One day Alan is walking Fritz, Miss Hester’s dog. Fritz disappears into a garden owned by Abdul Gasazi. Gasazi tells Alan that Fritz is now a duck. Alan believes him, only to find that Fritz has already returned home-as a dog. Gasazi’s story was a trick-or was it?

5. Background Information • Gardens can be molded and shaped by clipping the branches of the shrubbery and bushes into shapes and designs.

6. Key Concept unusual gardens

7. Key Vocabulary • awesome • convinced • disappeared • discovered • incredible • impossible

8. awesome causing a feeling of wonder, fear, and respect

9. convinced made to do, believe, or feel certain about something

10. disappeared passed out of sight; vanished

11. discovered found; learned

12. incredible too unlikely to be believed; astonishing or amazing

13. impossible not able to happen or exist

14. Strategy Focus: Monitor/Clarify • We monitor and clarify as we read to help us understand. • This strategy helps us to check ourselves to be sure we are understanding what we are reading. • Reread or read ahead to clarify any clues along the way.

15. Strategy Focus: Monitor/Clarify Let’s try it! Read page 352. Do you understand why this story is titled The Garden of Abdul Gasazi? ~or~ Read page 352. Why did the author include the information about Alan’s hat?

16. Comprehension Skill Focus: Story Structure • When you understand story structure, you identify and describe the main elements of the story. • The main elements are: • characters-the main people (and animals) in the story • setting-where and when the story takes place • plot-the sequence of story events; includes a problem (at the beginning) and how the problem was solved (at the end).

17. Graphic Organizer Fill in the organizer with details from the story.

18. Meet the Author and Illustrator When Chris Van Allsburg was growing up, he had no idea he would one day be an artist. He did enjoy art, however, especially drawing cartoon characters. His favorite time was the two days a week when he had art class at school. He even went to school sick if it was an art day! As he grew older, Van Allsburg's interest in art faded a little bit. But after high school, he enrolled in an art school, mostly because he thought the classes would be easy. He was wrong about that! The classes were long and hard, and he felt that the other students had more art experience than he did. But he discovered that he still loved art as much as he had when he was younger. He mainly studied sculpture, and he went on to get a Master's degree in sculpture after college. Van Allsburg wasn't a sculptor for very long, though. Just for fun, he began "drawing little pictures" at home. "It was either that or watch TV," he remembers. In time, he thought of a story to go with the pictures. That story became his first book, The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. The dog Van Allsburg created in that book has appeared in most of his other books since then. The dog, Fritz, is special to Van Allsburg, because he is based on a real dog Van Allsburg once knew. "It's just a little thing I do to amuse myself, I guess — to always put the dog in the book as a little homage to him," he says. (from www.eduplace.com)

19. Link to Houghton Mifflin If you enjoyed reading “The Garden of Abdul Gasazi” and would like to check out some more information and activities, click below to go to www.eduplace.com, Houghton Mifflin’s web site. Click Here!