Pistes d'exploration

Create a chart with these titles: Past, Present, Future. List modes of transportation that fit into each category.

Would you describe the Tweedles as a bunch of “fuddy-duddies” or an avant-garde type family? What clues from the text and illustrations suggest that they were ahead of their time?

Do you think the Tweedles succumbed to societal pressures by buying a car? What similar pressures do students face today (e.g. having the latest cell phone, designer clothing)?

The Tweedles describe their car as “electric . . . smart . . . green.” In teams, invent an environmentally friendly product. Present your invention to class. Survey the class to see if they would buy your product.

Look at the front and back covers of the book and predict what the story will be about. Where and when do you think the story takes place? Who are the characters? What kind of car are they driving?

Make a story map with the following information: characters, setting, beginning, middle and end. 

Discuss problems of today that are similar to those of the Tweedles. What do we mean when we say something is green and smart? Are you behind or ahead of the times? In what ways? What do you do at home and at school to help the environment?

Draft a book trailer. Use the information in your story map to help you.

Poem-Mobiles: Crazy Car Poems

Mots-clés

Picture book , cars , family life , inventions , protecting the environment , transportation

Commentaire descriptif

It’s 1903 and the Tweedles don’t own a car. The townspeople, including their neighbours, think they’re “behind the times” and call them “fuddy-duddies.” Then Papa decides to buy an electric car and the whole family is excited, except Frances, who would rather keep her nose in a book. Meanwhile, the conventional townsfolk, in their gas and steam-powered cars, ridicule them. But when a medical emergency crops up, Frances jumps into the driver’s seat to save the day. Some of the book’s challenging prose (e.g. unreliable, helter-skelter, exhilarate) offers an opportunity for vocabulary expansion while certain expressions (“It’s electric!”, “It’s green!”, “It’s smart!”) make clever reference to the very same environmental rhetoric spoken today. Lafrance’s vintage-feel, mixed-media collage illustrations deftly capture early 20th century life with its old-style fashions, horse-drawn buggies and early-model cars. This timeless read-aloud showcases the very same debate—gas or electric cars?—we are having today.