Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword

"With engaging characters and delightful art, Hereville is pure enchantment" -- School Library Journal

Deutsch, B., & Richmond, J. (2010). Hereville: How Mirka Got Her Sword. New York: Amulet Books.

Eleven year-old Mirka is not interested in learning her family's traditions, like knitting or finding the perfect husband, from her family members. She does, however, want to learn to fight fire-breathing dragons. In order to practice the skills needed to beat these menacing beasts, Mirka fights bullies and takes on a giant, evil pig. After taking down the pig, she gets a challenge from a witch: if she defeats a troll, she will get a dragon slaying sword--the one thing she needs to accomplish her goals of defeating a fire-breathing dragon. The only person who can tell her how to beat the troll is her grandmother. Will she finally take advice from her family and get the sword of her dreams?


Reading Level: GN380L
Suggested Delivery: Independent read

Electronic Resources:

Welcome to Hereville: This website provides students with several sources of information about Hereville. It has a summary of the book, along with a "cast of characters." There is a drawing of each character found in the graphic novel and a little blurb about them. This will be helpful to students prior to reading--they will become familiar with the characters they are about to encounter. It also has a preview of fifteen pages of the novel. Students can use this as an interest survey before they read  to determine whether they would like to read the whole book. The website also has a link to a page of reviews about the book. Along the sidebar, there are more links, one of which is a link to the cartoonist's webpage. These links give students background knowledge they need to read the book, as well as a way to interact with technology.

The Original: This website features an electronic version of the original comic Hereville is based on. Students can read both versions and compare and contrast them.

Vocabulary: Hashem, ecological, conceded, pious, irritable, assaulted, Shabbos, kindle, mollify, brute, dybbuk, rancid, castanets, slay, innovation, spontaneity, travesty (other Yiddish/Jewish words are defined at the bottom of each page)

Reading Strategies:

• Before Reading: Students complete an anticipation guide. The guide can include true/false and yes/no questions about comics, graphic novels, and Jewish traditions. This will activate the prior knowledge necessary to comprehend the text. It will also build curiosity and anticipation of what is to come in the book.
• During Reading: Students can look at and analyze the text structure of the graphic novel. This can be done at any point of the novel because each page is set up like a comic. They can compare the structure of graphic novels and more linear pieces of writing. Students can compare not only the appearance and presentation of text and images, but how the storyline itself may differ between the two.
• After Reading: Students can apply what they have learned about comic books and graphic organizers as they create their own comic strip using the Comic Book Creator, found at http://www.readwritethink.org/files/resources/interactives/comic/index.html. 

Inferential Comprehension: Why is Mirka able to defeat the pig and the troll? What heroic qualities does she posses?