Esio Trot

By:Roald Dahl
Illustrated by; Quentin Blake
Fantasy
~Esio Trot is a fun little book about a man, Mr. Hoppy who is in love with the widow who lives beneath him, Ms. Silver. Mr. Hoppy's balcony over looks Ms. Silvers' and everyday he sees her but cannot bring himself to ask her to come upstairs. The only problem with Ms. Silver is that she gives all her love to her pet tortiose Alfie who lives outside in a little house on her boucany. One day, Mr. Hoppy is out on his boucany and Ms. Silver is out on hers feeding Alfie, she says to Mr. Hoppy that she wishes Alfie would grow! Mr. Hoppy gets a briliant idea. He writes some silly words on a piece of paper and tells Ms. Silver to recite this to him three times a day and he will grow. See tortioses speak backwards language so what Mr. Hoppy wrote was all backwards, like Esio Trot is tortoise backwards. Mr. Hoppy goes out and buys no less than 140 tortoises that are of all sizes that look like Alphie. While Ms. Silver is at work he trades Alfie out for a tortiose that is 2 ounces heavier. He does this every week for 8 weeks, making the "Alfie" grow by two ounces every week. Untill he reached 27 ounces and cannot fit in his house anymore. For this, Mr. Silver writes another saying in tortoise language and "Alfie shrinks" just enough to fit into his house. Ms. Silver cannot believe it and thinks Mr. Hoppy is the most briliant man in the world. Mr. Hoppy asks Ms. Silver to marry him, and they do and live happily ever after.
~Not only is this a fun read for students, but it can also incorporate some writing. Have students work on de-coding sentences that are written backwards, or even write their own and have students partner up to try and figure out what is said. You could also have students make predictions about what they think is going to happen in the story. For instance, how they think Mr. Hoppy will make Ms. Silver fall in love with him.