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Don't Split the Pole; Tales of Down-Home Folk Wisdom
Christina Cooper

A cross between fiction and fantasy that illuminates the sometimes funny and often real truth behind 7 popular sayings, Don't Split the Pole by award-winning author Eleanora Tate is a delightful book of tales that is sure to amuse young readers with its down-home folk wisdom. It is appropriate for a 4-5th grade reader as an independent reading book, a reading group book, or one to be enjoyed as a read-aloud. The protagonists are easy to relate to with their universally shared concerns and challenges. Indeed, each of the characters in these tales receives an earful of wisdom, the meaning of which becomes all too apparent once a challenge has been met successfully.

Each of the 7 tales presents a different proverb that eventually points to a telling and sometimes hilarious truth or irony in life. The characters range from a young turtle, Mudslider, dedicated to becoming strong and healthy enough to crawl around his pond to Russell James, a 9 year old boy who is determined to catch catfish with his hands like his skillful uncle.

There's Maggie, a tired and overly medicated dog who finds herself in a new home feeling homesick, over the hill, and just plain miserable. Maggie learns that there's not much truth to the saying "you can't teach an old dog new tricks." With a little help from a seagull named One Foot, she learns how to catch fish and quickly regains an enthusiasm for life that she didn't know she still had in her.

Then there's Tucker, a 12-year-old boy who is obsessed with his small size. With the help of the ghost of an ex sea rescue man, he saves a drowning man and learns that "big things come in small packages."

Whether person or animal, the characters find, often with great hilarity, that a little bit of folk wisdom goes a long way.

Author Eleanora Tate, finds inspiration writing of her current hometown, Morehead City. Three of the seven tales take place in this North Carolina sea town. The book is richly illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu, a husband-wife team who have collaborated on several illustrative works.

Also included is a list of Recommended Readings on Proverbs and Sayings — a resource that provides lots of extension opportunities.

Suggested Accompanying Activities

Because each character changes from the beginning of the story to the end, these tales provide an excellent opportunity for students to sharpen their compare and contrast character analysis skills

1. Discuss sayings and proverbs — what is their value, role, and merit. Ask how they are passed along.
• Share proverbs students are familiar with to generate class chart of sayings.
• Students can interview their family members for others and bring those back to class and add to the chart, share with classmates.
2. In small groups, students discuss a few sayings from a class-generated chart and add their interpretation of proverb to it. Share with class.
3. Each student chooses one saying or makes up a new one that will become the basis of a short story in the style of those shared in Don't Split the Pole.

Pre-Writing

• Write the interpretation of the saying.
• Develop story map to plan the characters, setting and sequence of events.
• Complete a character compare/contrast Venn Diagram or some kind of character analysis chart in which to illustrate how the character will change towards the end of the story.

Draft/Edit/Rewrite

• Write initial draft of story
• Engage in peer and teacher conferences
• Teacher leads whole group/ small group mini lessons focusing on examples from Don't Split the Pole of how the author:
  - Introduces and develops the characters/ settings in the beginning of the story.
  - Uses humor to illustrate the character's personalities, struggles…
  - Uses fantasy to blend the stories somewhere between realistic fiction and fantasy fiction.
  - Introduces and engages each character in a struggle/challenge during which they learn the value/truth of a particular saying/proverb.
  - Weaves the saying/proverb into the story.

Share stories with class

Students and teacher can evaluate stories using a class generated rubric focusing on the application of skills learned throughout mini lessons.

About the Author

Eleanora Tate was born in northeast Missouri and has been writing stories since she was a child. She is the recipient of numerous awards including Parent's Choice, Zora Neil Hurston award for contributions to storytelling, a 1990 Notable Children's Trade Book in Social Studies, and Child Study Book Committee Children's Book of the Year.

Other Books by Eleanora Tate

The Secret of Gumbo Grove, Dell, 1996
Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School, Dell, 1993
A Blessing in Disguise, BDD Bks Yo, 1996
Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr!, BDD Bks Yo, 1998

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