Reading bellwork What is a character in a story? Who is your favorite character in a novel? What makes a character believable and real today? Can characters feel like real people? Why or why not? You must be able to defend your answers.

Character Revealing Personality

Pippi Longstocking John Henry Harriet the Spy Anansi the Spider Stuart Little Hercules Do you know these characters?

What Is a Character? A character is a person or an animal in a story, play, or other literary work. Paul Schulenburg

How Authors Reveal Character A writer can reveal a character in the following ways: 1.describing how the character looks and dresses Linaleth’s flaming red hair whipped in the wind. She adjusted her shimmery silver tunic and checked the straps on her tall leather boots. 2.letting the reader hear the character speak “I’ve had it! That mutt has trampled my yellow daisies for the last time!” Mrs. Crabtree vowed.

How Authors Reveal Character When Brandon found the envelope containing 250 dollars in the back of the store, he brought it to the cashier and hoped whoever had lost the envelope would claim it there. 4. letting the reader know the character’s inner thoughts and feelings My stomach flip-flopped when I found out we couldn’t keep the abandoned puppy. 3.showing the reader how the character acts

How Authors Reveal Character “Austin is driving me crazy! Mr. Know-It-All keeps butting into my conversation to correct me, and he didn’t even go on the museum field trip! Argghhh!” Julie thought. 6.telling the reader directly what the character’s personality is like (cruel, kind, sneaky, brave, and so on) Miss Ellie was loving and kind. She visited neighbors who were lonely, mailed cheery notes to friends, and volunteered at the Kids’ Club each afternoon. 5.revealing what other people in the story think or say about the character

Are the following statements true or false? ____________— A character in a story can be an animal. ____________— An author may reveal a character by describing how the character looks or dresses. ____________— Authors never directly reveal what the character’s personality is like. What Have You Learned? True False True

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