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Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Creative Writing: An Altruistic Individual”

In this activity, students will write a creative narrative based on an altruistic person from their own life.

In his ending letter to the reader, Gleitzman shares that the inspiration for Barney’s character was Janusz Korczak, a real altruistic individual who protected children during WWII. In this activity, you will select a person who inspires you in your life and write a story about their work. You can write about them truthfully in a biographical account or, like Gleitzman, create a character based on this person’s life. To guide your thinking as you prepare to write, consider the following questions:

• Who is this person? What traits and details define their identity?
• Where is this person from, or where does this person live?
• What is this person’s relationship to you (if applicable)?
• How is this person altruistic? Include direct and indirect parallels to Barney’s character.
• What are some examples of altruistic deeds?
• How does your story end?

As time allows, complete the steps of the writing process with peer editing or peer critique circles. Finally, read your creative writing aloud to the class.

Teaching Suggestion: This activity combines the novel’s themes of The Power of Storytelling and Altruism Among the Persecuted in the context of a creative writing assignment. Although students may be more comfortable reporting or describing their person’s altruistic deeds, students should be encouraged to write a narrative surrounding the person (i.e., create a story) as Gleitzman does with Barney. You might encourage students to use Gleitzman’s style of writing as an example of how they can approach their own creative writing assignment. While this activity is presented as an individual assignment, it can also be adapted to group work.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced classes, this activity can be refocused to have students select one famous altruistic person in history and write a story from that individual’s first-person point of view.