Book-Based Skill Builders
A Biography of Comfort
based on Each Little Bird that Sings
by Deborah Wiles
Grades: 3–6
View and print the student activity sheet (PDF)
About the Book
Comfort Snowberger is not a stranger to death since she has attended 247 funerals at her family�s funeral home in the small town of Snapfinger, MS. Each funeral is a family affair and every member of the Snowberger family has a specific job to ensure a lovely funeral for the dearly departed�s family. When Comfort�s Great-great-aunt Florentine dies she learns first-hand that grief can catch you by surprise and leave you with feelings of great loss and loneliness. As Comfort deals with these feelings she is also faced with her best friends decision not to be her best friend anymore and the antics of her cousin, Peach, who is the world�s biggest pain. Comfort finds herself in a fight for her life as a flash flood threatens to drown her dog Dismay and Peach. Through this tragedy Comfort finds that true friends and family will always be there to support you when life throws you a curve ball.
Set the Stage
Get students ready to read with some of these discussion starters:
- Show the book cover illustration and ask students what they think the story may be about.
- Look at the illustrated map before chapter one and discuss the legend and layout of Snapfinger town.
- Ask students to share a difficult life experience where a friend was helpful in supporting them.
- Read a featured obituary from your local paper and talk about how obituaries honor a person�s life.
Review
After reading the book, discuss the following:
- Read the article that Comfort wrote, Top Ten Tips for First-rate Funeral Behavior, on page 47. Brainstorm with the class some additional tips to add to the list.
- Ask students how this book changes their view of what a funeral is like.
- Discuss how Comfort and Declaration�s friendship changed throughout the book.
- How did the circumstances around losing Comfort�s dog Dismay change her feelings for Peach?
- Preacher Powell always started a funeral with the words, �We are here to celebrate life!� Brainstorm some ways to honor or celebrate someone�s life after their passing.
Student Activity
Students will plan and write a biography for the main character, Comfort. To extend the activity students can write their own autobiography. For some added fun read some autobiographies to the class and have students guess who the mystery person is. You can find lots of examples of biographies to share with students on the Scholastic Librarian's Web site.
Related Activities
To extend students� enjoyment of the book, try these:
- What�s in the News?: Review some of the newspaper articles that Comfort wrote for the Aurora County News. Have students write a newspaper article about an important event in their life. Students can create a newspaper masthead on a larger sheet of paper and glue their article to it. Display them in the classroom or school library. For newspaper writing tips for kids visit the Scholastic Teacher�s Web site.
- Class Cookbook: Comfort and her Great-great-aunt Florentine compiled a cookbook called Fantastic (and Fun) Funeral Food for Family and Friends. Create your own class cookbook by gathering student�s traditional family recipes or just their favorite dish. Show some examples of cookbooks and point out how they are organized by food categories. Have students group like recipes and plan the layout of their class cookbook. After completing the cookbook plan a taste test day where several recipes from the book can be shared. A few students can offer some background information on why they selected their particular recipe for the book. You could even invite your principal to be a Guest Taste Tester!
- Family Tree: Discuss Comfort�s relatives and some of the interesting or silly behaviors they exhibited. Have students research and create a family tree of their relatives. Students can ask parents if they have some funny family stories that they can share with the class. Display the completed family trees around the classroom.
- Point of View: Discuss with students that this book was told from Comfort�s perspective or point of view. Have students pick another character from the book and write how the story might be different if told by another character�s perspective.
- Name Poem: Describe to students what an acrostic poem is. Have students select a character from the book to write an acrostic poem about. Include an illustration of the character. Have students read their poems to classmates and have them guess what character the poem is describing.
(PDF)
View and print using Adobe Acrobat Reader version 4.0 or higher.
Get Adobe
Acrobat for Free.
