Sid the Mad Little Bad Little Dragon is a rhyming tale of a bully

• The rhyming story encourages phonological awareness.
• The text is presented on the traditional red and blue primary printing lines.
• The layout of the text will be familiar to primary students who are also learning to print.  As they read the story, students will learn the relationship between reading and printing.

• It can be suggested that Sid became a bully because he was never included into the play group.  Unfortunately, his intimidating appearance caused the other students to avoid him.  His actions as a bully were the result of his exclusion.
• Tommy was the other extreme, a shy and quiet child who found it difficult to approach the other students and make friends.  He was never included into the play group because his shyness caused him to appear unfriendly.
• Teachers can refer to the facial expressions of the characters in the book to illustrate that everyone was unhappy.  Exclusion and rejection caused Sid to bully the other children.  Feeling helpless, these children turned their aggression towards Tommy.  These result of these actions was a circle of unhappiness.
• When Sid scares Tommy in the sandbox, there is a turning point.  Sid feels ashamed of his behaviour and Tommy finds the courage to invite Sid to play.  Sid's empathy towards Tommy and Tommy's kindness towards Sid, breaks the circle of unhappiness.
• Students learn that although we are all different from one another, everyone wants to be treated with respect and kindness.
• This book can be used to illustrate the life lesson that happiness follows when you always treat other people the way you would like to be treated.
• Topics of discussion could include:  respect, compassion, friendship, empathy, and sharing.

The following is just one example.
The staff at an elementary school was struggling with a special needs student.  His problematic behaviour had escalated to the point where he was considered "out of control" by his teachers.  They were unable to effectively reach this child, until one teacher introduced him to the book.  As they examined the story together, the child recognized that he was acting exactly like Sid.  This was an exciting breakthrough and the staff decided to use the book as a special awareness unit for the entire school.  Primary classes made Sid masks, puppets, and pictures.  Juniors created their own Sid stories that were then bound into books.  These projects were  culminated by an author/illustrator visit, which can be seen pictured in our flyer and on our website.

Click here to preview our flyer.