Book Review: A Tangle of Knots, by Lisa Graff

Why I Picked It Up: This book was recommended to me by a 5th grade teacher friend about a year ago.  I’m not sure why I didn’t read it right away (maybe because I had a six-week-old baby to keep alive…), but I was browsing through my library’s online collection looking for something to read and A Tangle of Knots was there!  Cue the flashback! I remembered my friend had said it had something to do with cake, and I like cake, so I checked it out. Why I Finished It: After just a few chapters, I was definitely sucked in to this book.  The story was refreshingly unique, but incredibly complex at the same time.  It’s a book where I almost need to go back and re-read it now that I’ve finished it to be able to catch everything! It’s set in a whimsical world where people have Talents, some useful, some not.  Cady’s Talent is being able to bake the perfect cake for any person she meets.  Sprinkled (cake pun!) throughout the book are the recipes for the cakes she concocts for the other characters.  There are several story lines in this book: Marigold, a young girl who is still looking for her Talent while her two Talented brothers (one with a talent for spitting, one with a Talent for getting lost) make her life difficult; V, the old woman who comes to live with Marigold’s family after an accident leaves her unable to speak or remember; Miss Mallory, with her Talent for placing orphans in their perfect homes, and Cady with her Talent for baking cakes for Adoption Day celebrations, but never her own; the mysterious Toby who picks up unclaimed luggage to sell at the Emporium; the aloof, slightly crotchety, Owner of the Emporium who is looking for something in certain kind of blue suitcase and has a Talent for stealing Talents; and the old man who crashes his hot air balloon into Marigold’s family’s living room forcing them to move to the rooms above the Emporium. They all twist and tangle together and eventually converge in the end and I found myself reading faster and faster as I drew closer to the finale!  I loved the short chapters and how they contributed to the excitement towards the end of the book. Who I Would Give It To: This would make a great read-aloud for middle school and upper elementary school students.  It’s a great story about identity and relationships, and the variety of characters in the book make it possible for just about anyone to make a personal connection with it. Integration Ideas Character Because there are so many important characters in this book, have students create trading cards for each of them.  They won’t be able to complete the cards until after they finish the book so they have ALL the information about each character, but as they read, they can be filling in the blanks on the card (or in a notebook and they can transfer their notes to the card creator tool later).

Students can create an avatar for each person.

• Photo-Share Avatars
•  Traitr tool in ToonDoo (must create a free account to use the tool).

The avatar can be used as the image for the character’s trading card:

• Big Huge Lab’s Trading Cards
• ReadWriteThink’s Trading Card Creator  (also available as a free app)

Objects and Connections As I was reading, there were certain objects that kept appearing in the various story lines.  The first time or two the object was mentioned, you don’t think much of it, but as you see the same object over and over, you start to feel like there is a connection there – that this object is important. Have the students chart the connections between these objects and each of the characters using a graphic organizer like the one below, or create your own and have the students draw pictures of the objects. Tangle of Knots Graphic Organizer You could also have students use a mind map tool, like Popplet (website or app), to see more of a visual connection.   Writing Each of Cady’s cake recipes gives a brief (less than one sentence) description that describes the cake as well as the character.  Students could choose a cake that describes themselves and write a similar description.  Students could also practice procedural or how-to writing by writing instructions for baking and frosting the cake as well! (Bonus points if they bring a piece of their cake to share with you!)