Good News, Bad News
Jeff Mack’s book Good News Bad News portrays the different ways people can see the same situation. Using just four words – good news, bad news – Mack describes Rabbit and Mouse going on a picnic. Good news: they’re going on a picnic. Bad news: it starts to rain. Good news: Rabbit has an umbrella.
The bad news is, the wind is blowing apples off the tree onto Mouse’s head. But the good news is, there are apples to eat.
Is there more than one way to see something? Does who we are influence how and what we see? Does every situation have both positive and negative aspects? Should we always try to see the other side? How do we know something is “good news” or “bad news?”
My colleague David Shapiro created a game, “Good News, Bad News” that is a great reasoning exercise to play with students in 5th grade and up, and would be fun to play after reading this book aloud: http://depts.washington.edu/nwcenter/downloads/GoodNewsBadNews.pdf
