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Sample Chapter
5 | Supplement Chapter 5 | Related book: The Magic of Choice
List of Publications | Ordering Information
Land Ch1 | LCh2 | LCh3 | LCh4 | LCh5 | LCh6 | LCh7 | LCh8 | LCh9 | LCh10 | LCh11 | LCh12 | LCh13 | LCh14 | LCh15 | LCh16 | LCh17 | LCh18
INTRODUCTION |
At the
beginning of In the Land of Choice, Tammy
and Tommy, who are as near alike as any boy and girl twins can be, were excited
about a zoo and baseball game trip planned by their Aunt Liz and Uncle Fred for
the next day. When they wakened to a downpour they knew that their great
adventure would be cancelled. Disappointed and out of sorts, they began to
argue over chores and games and some paper cutouts Tammy was making.
The
bickering got under Grandma's skin. Near the end of Chapter 3, when Tammy
started to blame Tommy for another fight, saying, "He made me. . .,"
Grandma interrupted.
"Nobody
makes you fight. . . You're always choosing to fight. Now clean up this mess
and get to bed. I don't want to hear another peep out of either of you."
Some minutes
later Tammy called down to Tommy from her place on the upper bunk, "Do you
think Grandma's right? That we choose to fight?"
"Shhh,"
Tommy whispered. . . "Be quiet, or we'll get [it] for sure. You saw how
angry she looked -- and sounded."
"Aw,
you're just chicken," Tammy replied, giggling quietly.
"Oh,
yeah? Well, you must be afraid too, 'cause you're whispering." Tommy
laughed softly. "I guess we're both
chicken," he said.
"Yeah,"
agreed Tammy. "We're both chicken and we're both choosy."
Early in
Chapter 4, Tammy and Tommy heard a strange voice that announced, "I'm
Choosy Chicken," then recited a poem which began:
You make choices every day,
At home, at school, at work, at play.
You can choose the things you do,
Even your feelings are up to you.
At a
clucking sound from the same voice the twins ran to the window. Above them was
a brilliant blue sky, but everything else was hidden in a thick, puffy fog.
A strange
creature came toward them -- a tall bird with a long neck and huge yellow feet.
She was a bright, shining purple that gleamed brilliantly against the sharp
blue of the sky. Around her smooth neck was a ruff of coarse feathers in all the
colors of the rainbow. A pair of tiny, wire-rimmed glasses hung from a ribbon
around her neck.
When Tommy found his voice he asked, "Who are you?"
"I am
Choosy Chicken," she said proudly.
Tommy
exclaimed, "You don't look like any chicken I ever saw."
A few
moments later, when Choosy urged the twins forward, Tommy commented, "But
where are we going? There's nothing around here but fog."
Choosy
Chicken looked around quickly, said, "Oh, dear, how forgetful of me."
Then she spread her gorgeous, multicolored wings, stretched her neck, gave a
loud SQUAWK! and the fog made several little burping sounds and began to
disappear.
There, ahead
of the twins, where nothing but fog had been visible before, a wondrous sight
appeared. It was a huge amusement park, and over the gateway the twins saw a
huge pink sign that said, LAND OF CHOICE ZOO -- ADMISSION FREE.
"Wow!"
exclaimed Tommy. "What is that?"
"You
are in the Land of Choice," Choosy said, as she puffed up her chest and
preened her feathers. "That is our
zoo."
"Is
that where we're going?" asked Tommy, impressed.
"If you
want to."
"You
mean," said Tammy cautiously, "that we can go see the animals, and
ride on the rides -- for free?"
Choosy
Chicken nodded solemnly. "You can do anything you want to in the Land of Choice,"
she said.
"Oh,
boy!" cried both twins at the same time, clapping their hands and hurrying
toward the entrance. They were so excited that they failed to catch Choosy
Chicken's next words, although she spoke loudly enough for them to hear and
understand if they had taken the time to listen.
"But be
careful," she warned. "You must obey all signs, and you must pay the
consequences of all your choices."
The Choice
Awareness Supplement for Chapter 4 leads to the theme of the program --
STOP-THINK-CHOOSE. The consequences theme returns in Chapter 5, which follows
in its entirety as a sample from the book.
You can also read the entire book, chapter by
chapter, by clicking on the chapters one by one, or by clicking on NEXT CHAPTER
at the end of the one you have just read.
5 -- FEEDING THE ANIMALS |
Tammy and Tommy
hurried over to the gate to The Land of Choice Zoo, but before they went in, a
small sign caught Tammy's eye. It said, NO EXIT in big block letters. She
stopped and turned to Choosy Chicken to ask her what it meant, but just then a
clown parade, followed by a throng of laughing children, passed in front of
them.
Tammy laughed in
delight and forgot all about her question as she and Tommy followed the clowns
into the zoo.
"Tammy,
look!" A bright yellow sign off to their right said BABY ANIMAL HOUSE.
CHILDREN MAY FEED THE ANIMALS AT 10:00 A.M. Even as they looked, a loud gong
sounded ten times, and the blue doors beneath the sign slid open.
"Wow, talk
about luck," Tammy said. "We got here just in time to feed the
animals."
"Oh,
boy!" Tommy exclaimed. "Let's go." Then he saw Choosy Chicken
watching them silently. "Oh," he said a little uncertainly. "It is
OK, isn't it? I mean, they do want us to feed the animals, don't they?"
"Of
course," replied Choosy Chicken. "You may do anything you wish here.
But," she added darkly, "you must think about your choices in
advance."
The twins looked at
each other and shrugged their shoulders. What could be the harm in feeding a
couple of baby animals?
They stepped
inside. The dimly lit room was lined with cages of all sizes and shapes. Each
cage was labeled with the name of the animal inside. Tammy stopped in front of
a cage labeled LEO.
"Oh,
look," she cried, "a baby lion!"
Leo was standing
on his hind legs, his front paws braced against the shiny steel bars. His tail
brushed back and forth across the floor and he was purring heavily, flexing his
sharp claws in and out.
"Oh, isn't
he adorable?" Tammy exclaimed, holding out her finger for him to lick with
his sandpapery tongue.
Leo's food was on
a bench in front of the cage. Picking up a jar of raw meat and a spoon, Tammy
scooped up a generous serving and pushed it toward him. He ate greedily,
wrapping his paws around Tammy's arm in ecstasy.
Unable to bear
his weight, Tammy tried to pull away, but Leo flexed his needle-like claws,
pressing into her skin and holding her fast.
"Oh,
dear," Tammy thought in dismay. "What do I do now?" So that she
wouldn't be scratched, she pressed herself tightly against the bars of the cage
and continued the feeding.
It seemed like
hours! Her arm ached, her back and shoulders were stiff.
Finally Leo
finished. He drew in his claws and lowered himself to the floor of his cage.
Heaving a sigh of
relief, Tammy replaced the jar and spoon and examined her arm. There were ten
angry-looking red marks where Leo's claws had touched her skin.
In the meantime,
Tommy had stopped in front of the cage marked DONNA DEER. A small brown fawn
was lying quietly on a bed of straw, looking up at him with huge, velvety eyes.
Her food was an over-sized baby bottle full of milk. A sign on her cage said,
COME IN, so Tommy pushed the door open and sat down in the straw next to Donna.
She butted gently against his hands and arms, searching for the milk she
smelled. When she found the large rubber nipple, she reached for it greedily,
then she curled up in his lap and began to feed.
"Hey, this
is neat!" Tommy said enthusiastically. "Much nicer than feeding a
baby lion that has needle claws."
When Donna had
finished the last of her milk, she stirred slightly and Tommy waited for her to
get up. Instead, she put her head down on his leg and promptly fell asleep.
"Oh,
no," he thought. "Now, what do I do?" Cautiously, he tried to
move out from under the sleeping fawn. But every time he moved, she moved with
him, adapting her body to his new position.
Tommy's legs
began to hurt. Who would have thought a baby deer could weigh so much? He
pushed with all his strength, but Donna did not budge. "Tammy, help! I
can't get up."
Tammy started
toward the cage, but at that moment Choosy Chicken stepped aside and revealed a
small sign that neither twin had noticed before. "NO MORE THAN ONE PERSON
IN THIS CAGE AT ANY TIME -- SEVERE PENALTY," Tammy read aloud.
Tommy wailed,
"What am I going to do? My legs are numb."
"I don't
know," Tammy said uncertainly, biting her lip. "But I'm afraid to go
in there." She glanced over at Choosy Chicken, but the huge bird was
busily preening her feathers, and seemed not to notice what was happening.
"Here,"
said Tammy, sticking her arm through the bars of the cage. "Reach your
hand toward me. Maybe I can help you get up."
But Tommy was too
far away for their hands to meet, no matter how hard they strained. Finally he
turned away, biting his lip to keep back the tears of frustration. There was
nothing to do but wait.
Finally, after
what seemed like hours, Donna Deer lifted her graceful head, rose and
stretched, then bounded away with a flick of her white tail.
With a loud
groan, Tommy got stiffly to his feet, and hobbled painfully out of the cage.
"Gee, my
legs feel strange. They're so stiff and sore I can hardly walk," he
moaned, while glaring at Choosy Chicken as if to say that what had happened was
her fault. Then he sank down on a bench and tried to rub some feeling back into
his legs.
Choosy Chicken
drew herself up to her full height and lifted her tiny glasses to her beak.
"My dear boy," she said, as if she had read his thoughts, "In
The Land of Choice you must be prepared to pay the consequences of the choices
you make -- as you have been told!"
Supplement to Chapter Five:
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Each STOP-THINK-CHOOSE chapter supplement contains
several optional elements designed to help children gain in choice-making
skills. These chapter supplements may be used by a parent helping an individual
child to build choice-making skills, or by other adults, teachers, counselors,
or other group leaders, working with children.
For each chapter any materials needed are noted
first. In Chapter 5 the only material needed is the Choices Log.
The Pre-Reading Discussion is used as reminder of
the previous Big Idea. Children may be asked to read from their Choices Logs,
and followup of Take-Home Pages (see below) may be shared and discussed.
The Chapter is read aloud, and suggestions are made
for a brief discussion of key elements of the story.
The Big Idea. Suggestions are made for developing
The Big Idea for the chapter. For example, in Chapter 5 the discussion begins:
"Choosy Chicken gave Tammy and Tommy a warning
about consequences. What did she say?" Wait.
"She told them that they 'must pay the
consequences' of the choices they make."
Discussion proceeds toward the development of The
Big Idea. For Chapter 5 the Big Idea is:
After a choice, what happens next we think of as
a consequence.
That idea may be developed through creating a poster
and through one or more activities.
Activity #1: Getting Consequences to Happen.
Partners in turn are given whispered instructions. For example: Try to do
something that gets your partner to smile. The next person is told: Say,
"Thank you for being my partner," or something else that will get
your partner to say, "You're welcome," or something similar.
Activity #2: Consequence Surprises. This activity
works best before a break of some kind (lunch, recess, etc.). One member of each
pair is given a whispered instruction: Do something without words that gets the
other person to stand up. But then the real activity takes place during the
break. Give a Consequence Surprise to your partner -- try for a positive, but
if your words or actions are negative, make sure not to hurt the person or his
or her feelings. For example, if the person smiles, frown back; if the person
says something negative, say something positive; if the person talks loudly,
whisper back; if the person says, "You're out," and you might
normally argue, don't.
Followup discussion suggestions include seeing if
the receivers can identify some of the Consequence Surprises, then asking the
senders what they did or said. This activity should make it clear to children
that the things they do have consequences, but that sometimes they get
surprises, because other people make their choices, too.
Choices Log: Children may be given time to write a
sentence, a paragraph, a story, or mini-essay about what they have learned from
the reading, the discussions, and the activities they have completed.
Take-Home Pages. Take-Home Page #5, page 144,
contains a story-telling activity for children to share with a parent, guardian,
or other older person. Instructions and sample beginnings are provided that
encourage story-telling that involves Expected or Surprise Consequences. One or
more of the stories may be pictured in stick figure cartoons and brought to the
class or group for discussion.
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15, 2010