Telling True Tales

Buddy was sleeping soundly in his bed until he was woken by a sharp crack of thunder.  Not again, he mumbled under his breath.  He had trouble sleeping fairly often, mostly because of what he had found under his bed that night.  He slowly pulled the covers down his body, careful not to make any noise.  He slowly placed his foot on the floor, crouched down, and pulled up the bedskirt.  There it was, a...

What do you want to be under his bed?  A monster?  A dead body?  A bug?  His brother?  Sometimes, the most moving stories are the ones that are true.  Sure, we all enjoy our fair share of monster and zombie stories, but while there is a time and a place for the fanciful, we can relate to true stories.  We've probably never looked under our bed and found a monster, but maybe we've found our dog eating our favorite toy.

We've just finished reading Tracy Kidder's book, Strength in What Remains.  Our protagonist, Deo, escaped genocide in Burundi and fled to New York City, speaking no English, having no family or home, and knowing nothing of western culture.  The book is the nonfiction account of how Deo became a successful doctor in the United States.

As we discovered by studying the masterful work of Kidder, nonfiction storytelling is a true art.  Because it's art, then, the ways someone can tell a true story are limited only by one's imagination and creativity.  In this webquest, you will look at ways that other people have told true tales, and then, borrowing from their work, tell one of your own.  So the question is, "How can I best tell my story?"

Image is a quotation by John Steinbeck.  Courtesy of Jill Clardy.