Me, Dan & Dragonfly

Me, Dan and the Dragonfly is a realistic fiction story about a girl, Shelly, recounting a time when she went to the riverbank. Shelly has cerebral palsy. Dan showed up and started teasing Shelly. He grabbed the dragonfly, and Shelly tried jumping onto the rocks to get to him. She slipped and fell so Dan started teasing her…until he slipped too! Shelly stood up for herself in the end and was the bigger person by helping Dan get out of the riverbank. The story is narrated from the girls’ perspective with dialogue between characters, thought bubbles, and speech bubbles.

Me, Dan and the Dragonfly is a simple narrative story. Critical thinking questions are provided to guide the reader. Illustrations match the text. A visual information guide is provided for teachers to draw students’ attention to the illustrative text, speech bubbles, thought bubbles, layout, and design. There is an infographic at the end of the book outlining the parts of a recount including the who, where, when, sequence of events, and conclusion. An activity on drawing their own visual map of a recount is provided for teachers to extend students’ learning.

Readers develop vocabulary such as singular/plural (dragonfly/dragonflies), homonyms (weak/week), synonyms (shivering/shaking), antonyms (lucky/unlucky), and similes. Opportunities arise to discuss apostrophes to show possession (dragonfly’s) and apostrophes within contractions (wasn’t). Focus on long and short vowel i, suffix ing (blinking), base words (flopping), and silent letters (climbed).

This title is from the Sails Literacy series. Hook readers and ignite their curiosity - over 850 levelled texts with bright, colourful, sophisticated designs.