The Kiss that Missed

Melling, D. The Kiss That Missed. (2007). New York: Barron's Educational Series.

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Lexile Score: N/A

Summary: A busy king hurriedly blows his son a goodnight kiss, but it misses its target. Being a royal kiss with enchanting powers, it flies off on an adventure through a dark forest full of wild animals and is pursued by a young knight, who eventually finds himself face to face with an enormous dragon. However, the magical quality of the kiss tames even the wildest of creatures. The knight is able to catch the kiss and bring it safely home.

Evaluation: This would be a great read aloud for young children. They would get so excited about the knight and dragon and wild animals. They would especially love all of the adventure in this story. It’d bring up great discussions about why the goodnight kiss feel out the window in the first place.

The students can also put themselves in the knight’s position and discuss how they would feel. As far as the character stereotypes go, the person saving the day is a knight (a male) and the king who is in charge of the house hold is also a male. The “good” characters don’t exactly offer a variety of backgrounds just the wealthy status of being a king and prince (the royal family).

The story does go through a variety of settings like the deep scary forest with wild animals and the castle, which is more of a serene place. There is a lesson to be learned and the values are explored instead of preached. The overall conflict does end up getting resolved and ends with a happy ending, making the kingdom a grand, happy, place.

Literary elements: Adventure- The text and illustrations take readers on a wild adventure filled with creepy forests and scary animals.

Imagery- the way the author describes each animal individually and so specifically makes the reader able to see exactly what is on the page even when closing eyes.

Theme- In the end, this story teaches children to not rush things and take your time.

Mini lesson: Ask your students to pick an animal and describe it in great detail using imagery. After writing that down, have them turn to the person next to them and read what they wrote and have their partner try and draw it just based on the descriptions the other student wrote. This will show how important imagery is in a story.  

Target Audience: PreK- 2^nd grade because they will find humor in a royal kiss and they love adventure stories around that young age.