Summary
Tricia Tusa's picture book tells of a lonely old man who turns a junkyard into a wonderland of found-object art. LeVar Burton meets real artists who create sculptures and installations from discarded materials.
Viewer safety
All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Discussion
A neighborhood boy changes his mind about an old man's junkyard when he sees the art inside.
- Why did the neighbors want people to stay away from the junkyard at the beginning?
- What did the old man create from the junk? How did he see these objects differently?
- What does the story teach about judging things or people by their appearance?
- What "junk" around you could be turned into something creative?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: sculptor, found art, repurpose, imagination, transform.
Try it: Find or draw three ordinary objects (a bottle cap, a cardboard tube, a rubber band). Sketch what you could make from them and write one sentence describing your found-art creation.