Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

“Healer of the Water Monster Song”

After reading about Nathan’s adventures in Healer of the Water Monster, students create original songs based on details from Young’s novel.

You’ve just read about Nathan’s adventures in Healer of the Water Monster. Music plays an important role in his heroic journey. Your goal for this activity is to create an original song that presents the most important events in the novel.

• Choose 10 important moments that trace Nathan’s character development over the course of the novel.
• Using this list of 10 events, write a song about Nathan’s adventures. Include all 10 moments from the story in your lyrics.
• End the song with an important lesson that Nathan learns because of his adventures. This lesson should connect to one of the novel’s main themes, which are Finding the Hero Within, The Importance of Respecting Nature, and Family as a Source of Both Love and Pain. Please present the lesson or message in your own words rather than simply restating the name of the theme.
• Give your song a unique, creative title that is different from the novel’s title.