Summer Redwall Library Event

[T.W.]

Over Christmas break, I got the OK to start work on a Summer Redwall Program. This is something I've wanted to do for a while and it perfectly meshes with this years supposed Summer Program, Every Hero Has a Story. I really want to make sure that I get this right, so I wanted to post the ideas I have so that Redwall fans can critique them and make suggestions that I might not have had myself.

I'm thinking of having a four weekly programs that would feature what I consider the most important elements of Redwall. These are riddles, songs and poetry, storytelling and adventures, and it would all culminate in a feast on the final day. I think four weeks is probably the best number and covers all of the most important elements, but if anyone has any suggestions for extra days I would love to add an extra day. Each program will last an hour, except for the first week since I plan to show an episode of the TV series that day.

Here, I will describe the ideas I have for the program. I'll flesh them out a bit more as time goes on. Feel free to make suggestions. I'm not sure what age range I will get, but I'm guessing any range of grade school kids based on our other programs. A friend of mine who also works at the library and runs a monthly Disney based program is going to help me gauge whether ideas work for younger kids (and keep my ideas grounded in reality ). I'm thinking of having each day set at a different area in the world of Redwall. That way, the week between each program is the journey between areas.

Day 1: Riddles at Redwall

• Start with a video of different Redwall artwork with Brian reading the introduction to Mariel of Redwall. This video feature cover artwork from each book (except for Martin the Warrior, which uses a still from the cartoon because of my well-known dislike of both covers).
• An introduction to Redwall. Describe the abbey and its many locations. Ask if children know what an abbey is.
• Tell the story of Martin the Warrior and how he came to found Redwall.
• Watch an episode of the Redwall TV series. I'm not sure which episode yet, either the premiere for Redwall or Martin the Warrior I'm thinking. I'll have to re-watch the series sometime soon.
• A craft involving making animal masks.
• Talk about riddles in Redwall. Show the different kinds of riddles Brian used. Give tips the characters used in the books to solve the riddles.
• Have our own riddle quest to find Noonvale, the setting of the Songs and Poetry week.

Day 2: Songs and Poetry at Noonvale


Day 3: Adventures and Storytelling at Salamandastron


Day 4: Feast at Redwall


I do have ideas sketched out for the other weeks, but it has gotten a bit late here. Those ideas will be edited into this post as well as any ideas I come up with or get suggested as I get ready.

[T.W.]

Since I can't edit the post like I thought I could, I'll just copy and paste into a new post.

Day 1: Riddles at Redwall
•Start with a video of different Redwall artwork with Brian reading the introduction to Mariel of Redwall. This video feature cover artwork from each book (except for Martin the Warrior, which uses a still from the cartoon because of my well-known dislike of both covers).
•An introduction to Redwall. Describe the abbey and its many locations. Ask if children know what an abbey is.
•Tell the story of Martin the Warrior and how he came to found Redwall.
•Watch an episode of the Redwall TV series. I'm not sure which episode yet, either the premiere for Redwall or Martin the Warrior I'm thinking. I'll have to re-watch the series sometime soon.
•A craft involving making animal masks.
•Talk about riddles in Redwall. Show the different kinds of riddles Brian used. Give tips the characters used in the books to solve the riddles.
•Have our own riddle quest to find Noonvale, the setting of the Songs and Poetry week.

Day 2: Songs and Poetry at Noonvale
My plans for this day are still fairly vague. I plan to play various Redwall songs and talk about the various forms of poetry. Maybe I'll make a poetry worksheet for them.

Day 3: Adventures and Storytelling at Salamandastron

• I'll tell the story of one of Redwall's heroes.
• I'll ask some of the kids about their favorite stories.
• I'll have a group ready to read The Great Redwall Feast in the manner of the Redwall audiobooks to the kids.

Day 4: Feast at Redwall
This will be a feast of food from The Redwall Cookbook. If we can't finish the Redwall Feast reading the previous week, we'll finish it this week.

Like I said, I still need to flesh out the ideas a bit more. I just wanted to see what ideas other people had and what they thought of the ideas I had.

[Mulchior Lancer]

Seems like you have a solid foundation laid out for your lessons. I'll chime in with some suggestions now, and whenever an idea pops in my mind.

Do you plan on going into any details about Brian, his life, and his reasons for writing the series? It might be a good jumping off point. Or you could save it for last with the feast, and tie it in as a celebration of Brian's life or something. It might be appropriate then, considering why Brian wrote about food so much due to the blitz.

For the songs and poetry section, what if it was The Arts and Language at Noonvale? It could focus mainly on the poetry and songs of Redwall, but also touch on the dialects and language Brian used for his characters, such as Molespeak, dibbunspeak, the highland dialect, and whatnot.

I'll try to think of more when they come to mind, but you're off to a great start!

[Worbee]

I think you have a lot of great ideas here and a good framework. I think you will really be able to give kids a sense of the world of Redwall and even a bit about how people lived in the past. This would indeed fit really well with the hero theme. It would be neat to show some of the many characters of Redwall...who are often of course different species and/or have different talents and personalities...and discuss what makes each a hero. Here are a few more ideas of mine, which may not be particularly good or may be too elaborate:
- The animal masks and the riddle solving seem to me like they might be the most difficult activities since they might take a lot of time, but they are definitely great ideas. For the part of the riddle-solving activity, it might be fun to have the kids move around the room and maybe at one point have to outwit a pretend adversary to get to a clue. There could be some secret inscription somewhere, like on a big cardboard block that they have to turn around in order to see. Of course, part of the riddle solving should be purely mental, I guess.
- In addition to the masks, any sort of costumes could be fun...either friends dressed in costumes who could be there on certain days, or simple costumes that the kids could wear over their clothes (like cloaks and habits they could tie with belts or ropes). Of course you would probably have to make sure you have extra depending on whether you know how many kids are coming, and also some kids I guess might have skin allergies towards certain types of cloth. Costumes might also get people in the mood to pick things up and pretend they are weapons, which might not be so good.
- While you are talking about the abbey, It would be neat to have some sort of model of the abbey that people could look at or maybe even touch or rearrange. There was also that book or kit or something that was published called Build Your Own Redwall Abbey or something...perhaps you could bring one or those or show a YouTube video of someone assembling one.
- Talking about or showing locations in Great Britain might work well in terms of giving the sense of place and as educational background material.
- For the day featuring Salamandastron, it would definitely be fun to incorporate Searats for anyone who particularly likes pirates. Also, the process of welding swords and armor would be an interesting educational topic.
- For the feasting day, you might briefly talk about what kinds of food people of different classes had access to in the past, and how the production of food at Redwall is similar or different.
I hope this may be helpful in some way.

[T.W.]

These are all wonderful ideas. Thanks everyone.

Do you plan on going into any details about Brian, his life, and his reasons for writing the series? It might be a good jumping off point. Or you could save it for last with the feast, and tie it in as a celebration of Brian's life or something. It might be appropriate then, considering why Brian wrote about food so much due to the blitz.

For the songs and poetry section, what if it was The Arts and Language at Noonvale? It could focus mainly on the poetry and songs of Redwall, but also touch on the dialects and language Brian used for his characters, such as Molespeak, dibbunspeak, the highland dialect, and whatnot.

I was definitely planning on talking about Brian during one of the days. I might just give a few details about him on the first day and then go into further detail on the storytelling day. I was going to look through some of the Youtube videos of his book tours and see if I can find something about him talking about stories and what is important in them.

I'll definitely include your advice on the language, but I think I might keep the title Songs and Poetry at Noonvale, just so it doesn't sound a summer class.

- The animal masks and the riddle solving seem to me like they might be the most difficult activities since they might take a lot of time, but they are definitely great ideas. For the part of the riddle-solving activity, it might be fun to have the kids move around the room and maybe at one point have to outwit a pretend adversary to get to a clue. There could be some secret inscription somewhere, like on a big cardboard block that they have to turn around in order to see. Of course, part of the riddle solving should be purely mental, I guess.

That's the idea I was going for with the riddle quest, having them solve riddles and then go to a place that is revealed in the answer to find the next riddle. I decided to cut down on the number of riddles for time and to keep them simple and similar to examples in Redwall.

- While you are talking about the abbey, It would be neat to have some sort of model of the abbey that people could look at or maybe even touch or rearrange. There was also that book or kit or something that was published called Build Your Own Redwall Abbey or something...perhaps you could bring one or those or show a YouTube video of someone assembling one.

That's a good idea. I looked into current prices, but they're a bit too high right now. I'll keep an eye out for it though.

For the day featuring Salamandastron, it would definitely be fun to incorporate Searats for anyone who particularly likes pirates. Also, the process of welding swords and armor would be an interesting educational topic.

Now that you mention it, the prevalence of sailing and pirates in the books might make for a good fifth day between Noonvale and Salamandastron. That could include talks of marine life and an attack from pirates. I'll have to think about that.

These are all wonderful ideas. I won't have time to use all of them since I will only have an hour for each class with an extra half hour the first day to watch an episode of the TV series. Over years of planning programs, we found that an hour is usually the best length of time unless a movie or something like that is involved.

As far as crafts are concerned, I was thinking of doing the animal masks at Redwall, cardboard shields at Noonvale, and cardboard swords at Salamandastron. I was a bit hesitant with the sword idea at first, but I'm going to try to take the best precautions I can. The swords will just be cardboard cutouts for them to paint or glue plastic jewels to the hilt and then "forge" aluminum foil to the blade.

[Mulchior Lancer]

Glad to hear the suggestions were helpful! I think the hard part will be trimming the lessons down and hitting the important stuff, but at least you have a lot of material to work with!

Agreed that my suggested lesson name sounds a bit too summer class, like Intro to Redwallism 101 or something. Don’t want to scare off the kids, right?

If you have the time, I do think a sailing/sea/river lesson might be fun to work in, but only if there’s enough time. I think it’s possible, considering how much sailing plays a factor in Redwall.

And I think the sword idea is pretty rad! I like the forging concept with using aluminum, very creative. If you get push back on making swords (which would be lame), you could always switch it and have the kids make their own Redwall tapestry. Maybe if they’ve made a character for themselves earlier, they can incorporate it into the tapestry with Martin. And for the day on sailing, they could make their own quest map, or even draw their own ship and name it.

In addition to the videos on youtube, I highly suggest downloading the Thula talk with Brian from when he did his tour for Eulalia. Not only do you get some good discussion from Brian, but there’s a part where kids show off their Redwall characters to Brian, which is fun to listen to. You can find the talk on Audible, and it’s pretty affordable.