Arthur's Mystery Envelope

Brown, M. (1998). Arthur's Mystery Envelope. Boston: Little, Brown and.

Readability lexile: 370L

Summary:

When Mr. Haney, the principal, asks Arthur to bring home a mysterious brown envelope marked "private" and "confidential," Arthur can't help but wonder what's inside. His friends Buster, Francine and Muffy all take guesses: what if it's a note about a failing grade? Or a lost library book? Or - terror of all terrors - a letter saying Arthur has to attend summer school!

By the time he arrives home from school Arthur is racked with worry. He figures bad news won't be so bad if his mother never reads it, so he doesn't tell her when he sees the envelope accidentally fall into the wastebasket. Arthur finally learns a gentle lesson about telling the truth and facing his fears, but you'll have to find out for yourself what was in the mysterious brown envelope.

Evaluation of the text based on Donna Norton's characteristics of high quality literature (Norton, D. (2011):

This book could be used as high quality literature, because it serves for multiple avenues of learning. For example, it could be used to teach the lesson about telling the truth and facing your fears. Even if it is something bad, it is important to get someone involved so they can help. Putting off bad news doesn't make it get any better. Sometimes it can actually make it worse. 

In the Ten Steps for Reviewing Children's Literature by Norton, I think this book addresses the power of the book. The words and images in the book had the ability to nurture or undermine sense of self, and it deeply impacted attitude. 

Literary Elements:

1. Characters: Arthur, Mr. Ratburn, Miss Sweetwater, Francine, Buster, Sue Ellen, Muffy, Binky, Brain, Miss Tingley, Mr. Haney, Mr. Read, Mrs. Read, D.W., and Kate.

2. Conflict: Arthur had to comes to terms with telling the truth and facing his fear of the private, confidential envelope. 

3. Tone: Scared; Worried; Relief.

Mini-Lesson:

I would use this book to teach about telling the truth and overcoming fears. I would use Arthur's example as one to get students thinking about the importance of telling the truth and also fears that they have. I would have students create strategies to help them overcome their fears. 

Target Audience: Grades 3-5

My personal reaction to this book was that I thought it was very suitable for my reading buddy. He is in the third grade and is just beginning to read chapter books. Growing up, I used to love reading Marc Brown books and watching the Arthur shows on TV. I thought my reading buddy would also get the same joy and adventure out of the book as much as I did at his age. I also thought the story line was very relevant to his age.