The Lemonade War: Realistic Fiction

  The Lemonade War by Jacqueline Davies is a cute realistic fiction story that revolves around Jessie and Evan Treski's end of summer activity--a lemonade stand. Recently, Evan has discovered that not only will Jessie jump a grade and be in 4th grade but she is in his class! This sparks a feud between the duo and involves Evan making a lemonade stand without Jessie--he favorite activity. And this sparks the war, winner takes all and loser gets none.
   This book is great for students of all ages whether being read to or reading the story themselves. Davies does a great job at making it close to impossible for the reader to find out who will win the war before the end of the book. Students also will identify with this book because all siblings have their fights and the students will feel a connection as either the older sibling or younger to Jessie and Evan.
  This book though it does not have many illustrations, only very few sketches, the illustrations add meaning to the text by being used to illustrate the math equations that were done through-out the story to illustrate how they made their calculations for the lemonade stands. The text also uses language that is simple enough that young readers can easily make words that are unknown to them and still comprehend the story.
  I really enjoyed the story because I related to it very well. I, myself, am an older sibling and have had fights with my siblings that went something like this story. It brought back many memories for me of good times and bad with my siblings.

Motivational Activities:
  • The students will pick one chapter that is their favorite and make a shoe box diorama to  illustrate that chapter that they will share with the rest of the class. 
  • The students will choose between an alternate ending or a prediction for the next book and then write at least one paragraph about it.
Discussion Questions:
  • Can you think of another way that the war could have ended? Explain why you think it could have ended that way.
  • Connections: Have you and your siblings ever been in a winner takes all type situation? How did you resolve the situation?
References:
 Davies, J. (2012). The lemonade war. New York: Scholastic Inc.

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