COVEN
SOMAN CHAINANI
Illustrated by
JOEL GENNARI
N e e d y o u r m a g i c a l c r i m e s o l v e d ? C a l l t h e W i t c h C o v e n .
Hester, Anadil, and Dot are legendary across the Endless Woods as vigilante detectives and protectors of the peace. The famed trio are not only talented witches, but also ride-or-die friends who’ve never left a case unsolved.
That is, until the Coven answers a call for help from a mysterious new world Red Isle, where the Light and Dark Lands are on the brink of all-out war, each blaming the other for a grim spree of deaths. Now the Coven must work together and unmask the killer before Red Isle tears itself apart. Little do they know: the real enemy might be hiding in plain
These discussion points can be revisited throughout reading the book drawing on evidence from the text to support viewpoints and opinions.
Choose a sample of pages to read and challenge the students – what is more important on these pages the dialogue or the image?
How do the image and dialogue work in tandem to create characterisation, plot and setting for the reader?
Are there any illustrations that you think work better for the dialogue?
Are there any pages where the dialogue and illustrations work against each other? Why might the author/illustrator do this?
Could any of the dialogue be improved to match the illustration better?
How do you think a graphic novel writer and illustrator communicate their ideas?
Which do you think comes first – the plot/dialogue or the illustrations?
How is the writer-reader relationship different in a graphic novel?
Creating the text/dialogue for pages in the novel. Use page 93: 1.
and ask students to focus on summarising what is happening across the 3 separate images.
Encourage inference skills and reading for meaning strategies. Consider enlarging this page and challenge students in groups to annotate each image with vocabulary related to the illustrations. Students could move around the room and read/review each other’s contributions.
Task could be to write the missing text/dialogue for the page or to write a descriptive paragraph for this page.Other recommended pages for this task are: page 52; pages 64-65 and pages 122-129.
2. Creating rich writing by removing the dialogue/text from the graphic novel and challenging students to create their own. The difference between this and exercise 1 is that once the students have completed this activity they can compare their ideas with the author’s.
This can be a very empowering exercise since the focus is on how well the illustrator has brought the author’s words to life. The main purpose is not to ‘match’ what text was on the original pages but instead to celebrate different writers’ styles within a classroom environment. Focus on pages 55-57
and challenge students to use what they know about these characters so far to write their dialogue.
Encourage students to look at the characters and consider how they present in the previous 54 pages – how do they talk? What are their characteristics? How do they behave in certain situations? How do they react?
Give students time to annotate the pages and share their collaborations.
Display the original pages 55-57 with dialogue and allow students time to analyse and reflect on the author’s choice of words compared to their own contributions.
This activity could be repeated with many other pages –recommend using pages 104-106 too.
3. Freeze-frame drama activities in role as characters. Being able to speak in role; role-play a character or bring a scene from a book to life all involve pupils using their inference and summarising skills.
They should also be encouraged to draw on knowledge of the novel and make connections between other events so far in the plot which will impact on how a scene is developed. Choose a page from the novel – suggest using an enlarged copy of page 254
Recap the plot so far with students and discuss each character individually- what we know so far; what has just happened to them; what is their head space currently like; how do they usually communicate and what might they be thinking/ saying?
This image could be sliced into 6 thin images – give different students a specific character to discuss. Students can then share their findings with each other.
Ideally, group students in sixes so they can recreate this image to freeze frame. When a student is touched on the shoulder they speak in role as the character.
You could go along the line so that students know when to speak or choose a more random order of characters. This activity could be repeated where the students need to respond to the other characters rather than simply saying what is in their own head.
This involves a deeper understanding of the skill. This activity could be repeated with many other pages –recommend using pages 248-249 too.
4. Creating the illustrations to match the text/dialogue. This involves a detailed analysis of the text/dialogue so that students feel equipped to produce the images to match.
Reluctant artists can write bulleted brief notes for the artist instead of drawing images to ensure inclusivity for the task. Suggest removing the images from page 189 –keep the text on the page and the boxes
Challenge students to visually imagine what the illustrations might be and complete. Once again, the main purpose of the task is to analyse how different readers create different images in their minds after reading the same stimulus.
You may choose to display the original page 189 from the novel so that students can make some comparisons with their own offerings.
Celebrate the students’ individual responses to the original. This task could be repeated throughout the novel – pages 196-201 would work brilliantly for this skill.
5. Using the illustrations as an inspiration for our own artwork – this task involves celebrating the artwork of Joel Gennari.
Take a page in the book – recommend page 231 – and cut the page down the middle so that the students only see the left side of the page.
For this specific example, the students would only see the 3 characters. Challenge the pupils to use their prediction skills of what has been stated and implied so far, alongside their knowledge of the author and illustrator to complete the right hand-side artwork for each of the 4 boxes.
Once again, for inclusivity purposes some students may prefer to make notes rather than draw the illustrations. You may choose to display the original page 231 from the novel so that students can make some comparisons with their own offerings. Celebrate the students’ individual responses to the original.
