Bad Day At Riverbend

 

Author/Illustrator: Chris Van Allsburg

Readability Score: Grade Level-2.8; Lexile Measure-680L; DRA: 38

Genre: Science Fiction

Subgenre: Fantasy

Theme: Communities and Ways of Life, Visual Arts, Cleverness, Creativity and Imagaination

Characters: Sheriff Ned Hardy, Owen Buck, Townspeople

Publication: 1995

Publishing Company: Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston

ISBN-0-395-67347-X

Summary: Sheriff Ned Hardy sets out to find the person responsible for the rash of color that has taken over his small town.  The townspeople are horrified at the color left behind the strange stagecoach.  The Sheriff and his men follow a trail of color to find a young boy with a crayon in hand.

Classroom:  This story can be used in the classroom by incorporating it into a writing assignment.  The teacher could have students write a personal narrative about what makes them special or unique.  This can be written in poetry form.  The narrative writing can be carried through the entire writing process within the classroom.