CHAPTER ONE
Mud’s Two Sides
Have the students read the
chapters aloud, with different
students volunteering to read
character parts. Pause to
check for understanding and
to comment on elements that
enhance appreciation.
Once upon a time—
not so long ago—
in a busy, blue sea not far from
Grammar Island...
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...was Sentence Island,
a blue island filled with ideas.
High in the wind,
a gray bird could just discern
the shape of the island,
shimmering in the ocean light.
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The shape of the island from
the air will prove to be the
shape of the sentence itself.
The images are designed
to enhance the structural
concepts.
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In the ocean,
schools of blue fish
swam under the waves
that splashed on the beach.
Shells filled the sand
like chocolate chips.
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Of all the fish in the school,
one was different.
His name was Mud.
The others swam around him.
“Are you a mudfish?” they asked.
“No,” said Mud.
“Are you a muddy fish?” they asked.
“No,” said Mud.
“My name is Mud.”
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Mud was different;
he didn’t care who knew it,
so no one bothered him.
In fact, Mud was different
from the other fish in two ways.
(Yes, he could talk, but all fish can talk.)
First, Mud could walk on land.
Second, Mud was obsessed;
ideas rose from his head
like bubbles.
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Mud was obsessed.
He could not stop thinking about it.
About what?
Oh, the sentence.
Mud had overheard a learned fish saying
wonderful things about the sentence,
and he just had to find
a sentence, to see one for himself,
to see a real one,
to learn how to write one.
It was Mud’s mission.
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Mud knew where to look:
on that island, there:
Sentence Island.
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Mud swam to the blue island
and rose through the splashing waves.
Mud was all wet.
He saw blue trees and blue ferns.
“I have to find a sentence,”
thought Mud.
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From the beginning, the serious
problem of incomplete thought
arises, and it will come full
circle in Chapter Five. Pause
here to ask why Mud doesn’t
understand. We will realize
later that the tree is only saying
predicates.
Mud hurried.
He went to the first tree.
“My name is Mud,” said Mud.
“Can you tell me a sentence?”
“Rolled over there,” it moaned.
“Dug a hole and jumped.”
“Huh?” thought Mud.
The tree groaned in the surfy wind,
and Mud went to his left.
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Suddenly, a flock of ostriches raced by.
“Tell me a sentence!” Mud called.
“A squirrel!...some seagulls!...that pine tree!” they cried.
“Huh?” thought Mud.
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Here is another introduction
to the problem of incomplete
thought. In this case, the
ostriches are only saying
subjects with no predicates.
Mud doesn’t understand
that yet, and to raise student
curiosity, we can ask what is
wrong with the ostriches’ words.
Somehow, Mud knew
those weren’t sentences
either. “A seagull?”
he wondered. “What about it?”
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Mud put his chin on his fin and looked
out over a blue bay, where a loon
was swimming toward him.
It had been eavesdropping.
“Psst! You! It...is two!” whispered the loon.
“Huh?” thought Mud, perplexed.
“The sentence!” cried the loon.
“It...is made of two sides, like this,”
and then the loon called,
“True loons.....croon soon!”
Mud noticed that the loon paused
strangely in the middle of his statements.
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Cow Loon has a curious habit of
pausing in each sentence; the
pause emphasizes the dividing
line between the subject side
and the predicate side of the
sentence. We want to instill a
deep sense of how sentences
get power from this simplicity.
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“Hi,” said Mud. “My name is Mud.”
“My name...is Cow,” said the loon, “Cow Loon.”
The loon waddled up onto the beach
and, using his beak, drew in the sand.
First, he drew a straight, vertical line:
Cow Loon’s name is a play on
the name Kowloon, a peninsula
and urban area in Hong Kong.
The word means Nine Dragons.
In 1997 Kowloon and all of
Hong Kong were transferred
from British rule to the People’s
Republic of China.
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“Look,” said the loon,
“a sentence...is an idea.
It...is something about something.
Two sides, see?” And he wrote
in the sand with his beak:
Loons
croon.
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We want one student reading
Mud’s part aloud, and another
student reading Cow Loon’s
part aloud. If the kids laugh
at the scenes, it shows
understanding and reinforces
their motivation, so we want to
encourage the fun.
Mud pondered this idea...
two sides—something about something—
Loons croon—
Then he saw the two sides!
This sentence, “Loons croon,” is about loons!
What about them?
They croon!
Croon is about loons!
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“Do another one,” said Mud,
thinking that maybe this wasn’t
so loony after all.
The loon looked at Mud and said, “I...will.”
“Go ahead,” said Mud.
“I...will,” said the loon.
“No,” said Mud, “make a sentence.”
“I...will,” said the loon.
“Do it!” said Mud, getting annoyed.
“I...will,” said the loon.
“Make a sentence!” pleaded Mud.
“I...will,” said the loon.
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This was too much,
but just as Mud was about
to jump out of his scales,
the loon laughed and said,
“Mud, I...will is a sentence!”
Mud’s inner light began to glow....
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Cow Loon could see that Mud was perplexed.
“Sentences...are made of words, Mud,” he said.
“Do you...know how many kinds of words there are?”
“Of course I—no,” Mud admitted.
“Two main kinds,” the loon said, “and six others.
Like this,” and he drew in the sand again.
“They...are called the eight parts of speech!”
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“When we...write a sentence,”
the loon explained,
“the words...make a predicate about a subject.
The subject...is what the sentence is about,
and the predicate...is about it.
subject
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predicate
I
will.
pronoun
verb
“The subject of a sentence...
is always a noun or pronoun,
and a verb...is always the main word
of the predicate.
It is best if students have
studied grammar prior to their
work with this writing book.
Grammar Island provides the
necessary introduction. This
book focuses on writing and
does not attempt to teach all of
the grammar.
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