Ralph Tells a Story

This book is an adorable story to introduce writing topics. Students can easily relate to the main character who struggles at first finding topics to write about and getting his thoughts on paper.

I teach second grade. I read this book to my class to begin our writing unit on personal narratives. It helps inspire reluctant writers to find new stories everywhere.

The previously (see update below) negative review was only regarding the electronic form of the book. In paper form I think this is a good story with a valuable message for children learning to write but the need to add electronic gimmicks had ruined this book. The text in the electronic book is made too small to read even though there is enough room to have had larger text, or even better, allow zoom to function in the book. Instead to read the text you had to tap on the text to enlarge it, which would have been an annoying interruption of the reading flow if it worked right, unfortunately it didn't. It amazes me how little vetting and editing is done with some of these electronic books. In this case sometimes one tap works and sometimes you have to tap a dozen times (not an exaggeration, try it) to get the text to enlarge to read it. This would be bad enough but a lot of the text is close enough to the edge of the book page that tapping just causes the page to turn rather than enlarging the text. Even if the text is not toward the edge of the page, taps often just causes the tablet controls to appear. My little one just got frustrated and lost interest in the story.If you want a well executed electronic book for children try the iPad App Lil' Critter "Me and My Dad" it is the best of the many dozens of children's electronic picture books we have tried. Even after many months we are still discovering new "Easter Eggs" in that book.UPDATE (I had previously given the electronic book 2 stars): I was contacted by Amazon and they let me know they had an update of the book and asked if it resolved the issue I had with the electronic form of the book. After trying the update, it did! I think I like the way they resolved it better than my suggestion to provide the ability to zoom in on the page the way you would reading a magazine on your K Fire. There is still the same difficulty enlarging individual text, that hasn't changed; BUT now when you start the book if you enlarge the first small portion of text the next portion of text is automatically enlarged when you do a page swipe. Each additional page swipe moves you in order to the next portion of small text and enlarges it until you get to the last portion of small text on a page and then the next page swipe gesture actually turns the page and enlarges the first portion of text on that next page; each page swipe gesture moving you through the portions of small text, in order, to the end of the book. Also, you can move back through the book the same way. The book now reads very smoothly. It's not intuitive though and without experimenting, someone who uses edge taps to move through the pages may not discover what the page swipe gesture does. I would suggest a note at the beginning of the electronic book to explain the use of the page swipe gesture. I was very impressed with Amazon's quick resolution of the problem with the electronic book; it took them less time than I have taken to update my review. Well done Amazon! I do wonder why this couldn't have been avoided by making each page into two pages so the graphics and text would be larger and you could read the text without the popup text feature. After all it works for the printed book.

I mean, a story is told. It is told by Ralph. So, it lives up to the title. My Grammy says a story well told is like a blessing- unless it is stupid and pointless. That reminds me of the other day when Grammy wanted some shredded wheat. We call shredded wheat haystacks. I don’t know why. We just do. I didn’t come here to be judged. I came here to tell you about Roger Relates an Anecdote. So, I went to Jeffers Grocery and Sundries. I came home and we ate them with goat’s milk and sundried tomatoes. Nothing like that happens in Richard Shares a Narrative.

'In the end Ralph writes a hundred pages and the stapler doesn't even work for all the stories he wrote. The inchworm story was very fun," says my 6 year old.Abby's characters, both written and illustrated, are fun, imperfect, and overcome relatable difficulties. The mix of typed font with comic style is engaging and encourages reading.We've read all of these stories more times than we can count and they remain a forever favorite with my kids. We can't wait for the next one.

I just received this book, read it once, and was so excited about how great it was I had to write a review immediately! "Ralph Tells A Story" is about a boy who can't seem to find inspiration for writing anywhere. He watches as his classmates write story after story, yet never finds any inspiration. By the end, Ralph learns that even the simplest, seemingly-boring aspects of his life can be the catalyst for compelling stories! As a 1st grade teacher, I know that this will be such an important book as a teach students to write "small moment stories." It's funny and cleverly-written, yet simple enough for young children to understand, and I feel confident that my students will be inspired to write! Although it's a great book in the classroom, I also think it's a worthy addition to any young writer's home library!

Absolutely love this book. As someone who teaches kids with special needs and struggling writers, I appreciated how rich and full a story could be, even for someone who insists that nothing ever happens to them.Five stars and two thumbs up.

Quick easy read to five year olds. Reading it over the summer to instill the idea of writing a story since they will be asked to do this in kindergarten.

This book is Love. It's easy, it's cute and I like how Ralph's friends gave him prompts and he grabbed them. And Daisy! Oh she was a darling. The teacher! I really loved it that she didn't mind Ralph lying on the floor, she just asked him what he found. So all in all it's a good story for even the youngest of storytellers/storywriters to understand and get inspired.

Book sent covered in glue and parcel wrapping which doesn't peel off?

Ralph is a kid who's always stuck when it's writing time at school. This wonderfully illustrated picture book is an ideal read-aloud for the first couple og weeks of school, especially if you do the writers workshop approach to literacy.

I read this book for a course I’m doing on writing picture books. Thoroughly entertaining. It tells the story of Ralph, who can never find a story to write. I particularly like his suggestion that writers should eat lots of chocolate.

My grade 2 class loved this book! They especially loved all of the book ideas at the end. We would love to see a part 2! It was very inspiring!