Operation Hopper and Other Tales: Nature, Magic, and the Oakland Acres’ Kids is a short story collection for children ages 7-11 (give or take). Meet the problem solving kids (and one pelican) who live in Oakland Acres. In “Lucky Cap” Andy rescues his sister and himself after a bicycle accident. Emily figures out how to encourage raccoons to leave her family’s attic and find a better home in “Neighbors in the Attic.” While in “Snakes Don’t Make Good Pets” Junie discovers the best place for the garter snake that terrorizes her mom. The dozen stories have positive messages relayed with humor.
Operation Hopper and Other Tales Nature, Magic, and the Oakland Acres’ Kids Discussion and Activity Guide is a guide for teachers and parents who want to deepen their children’s reading experience of the short story collection. The guide contains ten discussion questions and three activities for each of the twelve short stories. Questions and activities focus on setting, character development, and critical thinking. Readers are asked to identify and create figurative language such as hyperbole, personification, metaphor, simile, alliteration, onomatopoeia, and idioms. Logic matrix puzzles, the final activity, challenge logical thinkers.
Anita Borgo 