Fiction - Realistic

Mentor Texts:

Blue by Francesca Lia Block - An example of using a character (the imaginary friend named Blue) to drive a plot forward. In this short story, a blue creature appears before a young girl after her mother leaves. A good example of writing in 3rd Person while still offering insight into the main character's thoughts and feelings.
The Moustache by Robert Cormier - In this short story, a boy visits his grandmother at her nursing home. As you read, notice how the author uses figurative language to describe the characters and their experiences.
Daughter of Invention by Julia Alvarez - This story is from the novel How the García Girls Lost Their Accents, which is about the lives of four sisters spanning thirty years in both the United States and the Dominican Republic. In this short story, Yolanda struggles to write a speech for school. Notice how Alvarez creates conflict in this story through the difference in perspectives of the narrator's mother and father.
Coma by Ken. M, Age 13 - In this piece, Ken almost give the reader the sensation that they are watching this hospital room scene from a distance. He does this by using a third-person omniscient (all-seeing) narrator as an objective observer, someone who reports facts and observations about the scene but does not add their own emotions to it.