Ralph Tells A Story Read Free Books and Download eBooks
Nothing ever happens to Ralph. So every day when it’s time to write stories, Ralph thinks really hard. He stares at his paper. He stares at the ceiling. But he has no stories! With the help of his classmates, Ralph realizes that a great story can be about something very little . . . and that maybe he really does have some stories to tell. Debut author/illustrator Abby Hanlon’s endearing text and charming watercolor and colored pencil illustrations prove that writing can be fun! This story works nicely with Lucy Calkins’ Writer’s Workshop model of teaching.
Lexile Measure: 330L (What's this?)
Hardcover: 40 pages
Publisher: Two Lions; 8/19/12 edition (September 18, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0761461809
ISBN-13: 978-0761461807
Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 10.3 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (163 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #1,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #12 in Books > Children's Books > Education & Reference > Science Studies > Nature #27 in Books > Children's Books > Science, Nature & How It Works #129 in Books > Children's Books > Humor
Age Range: 6 - 8 years
Grade Level: 1st - 3rd
Very cute book, good humor, with colorful, inspired artwork to push any tyke towards creativity. For me a highlight was the juxtaposition of the front and back inner covers. The front shows a bunch of blank pages, indicating that Ralph had not yet found his creative streak, and the back is crowded full of all the stories Ralph learned that he had the capacity to write. Some examples are "When the Librarian Yelled Really Loud at Me", and "When my Mom Bought me the Wrong Sized Underwear."
In a field dominated with books about making friends in school, missing mom, and being bullied, Ralph Tells a Story is the first title I've seen about facing the horrors of academia. And these are very real. All across the nation wonderful teachers like Ralph's are encouraging their students to write wonderful stories.And plenty of kids are coming up short. Kids like...my grandson Max, who regards the de rigeur three page story he must write each Sunday night as nothing short of The Great American Novel. Author Abby Hanlon deals with young Ralph's writer's block realistically and humorously, striking a nice balance between making fun of poor Ralph and entering into his feelings.When he has his epiphany in the end and is able to tell a story, we are with him. We have been there ourselves. Ralph Tells a Story is wonderfully empathetic in tackling a basic problem kids face, succeeding in school. And the artwork is hilarious.
The previously (see update below) negative review was only regarding the electronic form of the book. In paper form I think this is a good story with a valuable message for children learning to write but the need to add electronic gimmicks had ruined this book. The text in the electronic book is made too small to read even though there is enough room to have had larger text, or even better, allow zoom to function in the book. Instead to read the text you had to tap on the text to enlarge it, which would have been an annoying interruption of the reading flow if it worked right, unfortunately it didn't. It amazes me how little vetting and editing is done with some of these electronic books. In this case sometimes one tap works and sometimes you have to tap a dozen times (not an exaggeration, try it) to get the text to enlarge to read it. This would be bad enough but a lot of the text is close enough to the edge of the book page that tapping just causes the page to turn rather than enlarging the text. Even if the text is not toward the edge of the page, taps often just causes the tablet controls to appear. My little one just got frustrated and lost interest in the story.If you want a well executed electronic book for children try the iPad App Lil' Critter "Me and My Dad" it is the best of the many dozens of children's electronic picture books we have tried. Even after many months we are still discovering new "Easter Eggs" in that book.UPDATE (I had previously given the electronic book 2 stars): I was contacted by and they let me know they had an update of the book and asked if it resolved the issue I had with the electronic form of the book. After trying the update, it did! I think I like the way they resolved it better than my suggestion to provide the ability to zoom in on the page the way you would reading a magazine on your K Fire. There is still the same difficulty enlarging individual text, that hasn't changed; BUT now when you start the book if you enlarge the first small portion of text the next portion of text is automatically enlarged when you do a page swipe. Each additional page swipe moves you in order to the next portion of small text and enlarges it until you get to the last portion of small text on a page and then the next page swipe gesture actually turns the page and enlarges the first portion of text on that next page; each page swipe gesture moving you through the portions of small text, in order, to the end of the book. Also, you can move back through the book the same way. The book now reads very smoothly. It's not intuitive though and without experimenting, someone who uses edge taps to move through the pages may not discover what the page swipe gesture does. I would suggest a note at the beginning of the electronic book to explain the use of the page swipe gesture. I was very impressed with 's quick resolution of the problem with the electronic book; it took them less time than I have taken to update my review. Well done ! I do wonder why this couldn't have been avoided by making each page into two pages so the graphics and text would be larger and you could read the text without the popup text feature. After all it works for the printed book.
I just read Ralph tells a story with my twin 5 year olds and they LOVE it. Not only are the drawings fantastic, the story is engaging and had my kids responding to every page. Both girls want to write books of their own now. They gave it a rating of double 10.
New from first-time author-illustrator Abby Hanlon. New, too, is Children's Publishing, itself borne out of the December 2011 acquisition of Marshall Cavendish Children's Books.Sort of a juvenile version of How to Get Ideas, Ralph Tells a Story follows a Pigpen-esque Ralph in what I imagine to be second grade. His attempts to unlock a serious case of writer's block are spot-on, and should allow young readers to empathize immediately. Wonderfully emotive illustrations, especially Ralph's near-endless trove of grimaces.My main and really only gripe is that while the text is legible enough (Palatino?), I would have preferred hand lettering, which may have connected more organically to the story. At the very least, a sans-serif font would have been better.Positive, funny, practical. Bonus style points for the ruled paper covers and the Before & After endpapers.
My 6 and (almost) 4yr old daughters love this book, we ALL really enjoy it. It's impossible not to smile while reading it. :)The entire book has an upbeat and positive air to it. I really appreciate that given some books targeted to this age group feature obnoxious or undesirable behaviors/attitudes.Best of all, there's a positive and inspiring message behind it. It'll encourage young ones to find stories in their everyday experiences.
This is a great book for kids kindergarten to second grade who are just learning to express themselves through writing. Ralphie can never write a story because nothing ever happens to him or so he thinks. With a little help from a friend he learns that something happens every day and with a little imagination those everyday things can become interesting stories that everyone can enjoy.
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