STUDY GUIDE FOR NO BIGGER THAN A THUMB
prepared by Cathy Kaemmerlen

ARTISTS BACKGROUND:

Cathy Kaemmerlen, professional actress, dancer, and storyteller, teams up with Betty Ann Wylie, well known area storyteller, to make a dynamic, double-the-fun duo. Both tour extensively their various solo programs, as well as their duo shows, throughout Georgia. Both are undergraduate English majors, who use their programs to promote reading and dramatic play.  Children from all over the state have said:  “You make education fun.”

CURRICULUM CONNECTION:

In language arts:  sequencing, repetition for effect, comparison and contrast, classifying, making up stories, hearing folktales.  In social studies:  my world and different cultures.

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES:

--To introduce the thumbling in literature, define him, give examples of
--To present stories about heroes/heroines who, despite their small stature, use other means such as their wit and intelligence to defeat bigger foes
--To see stories come to life through storytelling and story theatre

PROGRAM SUMMARY:

Miniature people have proved a fascinating topic in stories written for children.  The notion of a “small” hero or heroine, a thumbling, is popular throughout the world.  Many people have wondered what it would be like to be a small person living in a big world.
NO BIGGER THAN A THUMB tells two thumbling stories about small heroes who use their wits to defeat much larger foes.  “Issun Boshi, Little One Inch,” is a thumbling story from Japan and “Loud Mouth Thummas” is a thumbling story from Slovenia.  Children will learn the names of other thumblings from other countries, the “jist” of a thumbling tale, and will get a thumbling friend of their own.

VOCABULARY WORDS:

hero, heroine, thumbling (a wee folk no bigger than a thumb), trickster (some one who likes to play tricks on others), wits, foe, outrageous, lilliputian (small person from GULLIVER’S TRAVELS), mite, miniature
Chisai:  Japanese for thumbling
Smallig:  Norwegian
Petite: French
Pecano or Pecana:  Spanish
Piccolo:  Italian

Some names for Thumblings from around the world:
Lipunishka (Russia)
Little Finger (Viet Nam)
Thumbelina (Denmark)
Tom Thumb (England)
Boconono (Africa)
Issun Boshi (Japan)
Petit Poucet (France)
Pinoncito (Chile)
Digit the Midget (Ethiopia)
Loudmouth Thummas (Slovenia)
Doll in the Grass (Norway)
Little Shell (the Phillipines)

OVERVIEW OF ART FORM:

Telling stories is an oral tradition, dating back to when mankind first developed a language or form of communication. Storytelling is a universal way of passing down information to be saved and remembered for generations to come.  It is an interactive art form in which the storytellers’ passion for the story, material, and information, is passed on to the audience, who sorts through, interprets, stores, and synthesizes what is heard.

PRE AND POST ACTIVITIES:

--Read through several different versions of thumbling tales, including such classics as Tom Thumb and Thumbelina
--Discuss what a thumbling is
--Imagine and talk about what it would be like to be a thumbling and to see life through a thumbling’s eyes
--Create a world for a thumbling
--Make thumbling creatures out of thumbprints and use them to tell or act out stories

Warm Up Questions for meeting the Georgia Performance Standards for "Listening/Speaking/Viewing":
Describe the perfect audience.
What are some of our class rules for being good listeners?
How do we show someone we appreciater their visit to our school or classroom?
How does being part of an audience help make you a good citizen?
What are some examples of bad audience behavior or attitudes?
How does a negative audience member effect your enjoyment of a show or performance?
How would this make the performer feel?
How do we want the performer to feel when they leave our school or classroom?

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

THE BROCADE SLIPPER AND OTHER VIETNAMESE TALES (“Little finger of the watermelon patch”) by Lynnette Dyer Vuong
TOM THUMB by Richard Jesse Watson
TOM THUMB:  THE ORYX MULTICULTURAL FOLKTALE SERIES by Margaret Read MacDonald
THUMBELINA by Hans Christian Anderson
LITTLE ONE INCH by Barbara Brenner
THE INCH BOY by Morimoto Junko
THE SHRINKING OF TREEHORN by Florence Parry Heide
STUART LITTLE by E.B. White
THE GIANT’S TOE by Brock Cole