Wise Owl: Talking and Thinking about Children’s Literature

Wise Owl is a curriculum series designed to use children’s literature to provide primary school students the opportunity to explore philosophical questions while developing critical and creative thinking skills. Each Wise Owl packet includes a Teacher’s Guide to the philosophical issues in a children’s book and to facilitating philosophical discussions with young people, along with reproducible Activity Cards with philosophical discussion questions based on the book.

Wise Owl was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s by Gareth B. Matthews, a professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, a doctoral student in Language, Literacy, and Culture at the same University, as well as an elementary school language resource teacher, who is currently Secretary of the College and an Assistant Professor of Education at Mount Holyoke College, and Shari Tishman, then a masters student in Critical and Creative Thinking at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and currently a Lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a Senior Research Associate at Harvard Project Zero. Originally published by Sundance Publishers & Distributors, Inc. in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the complete series is published here by the Institute for the Advancement of Philosophy for Children with the permission of Reilly, Tishman, and the estate of Matthews on the condition that it not be used for commercial purposes.

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Albert’s Toothache by Barbara Williams

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

This is the story of a young turtle named Albert, who claims to have a toothache but doesn't have any teeth. Poor Albert must be mistaken, we think at first - a trifle condescendingly - but perhaps his mistake is not so naive as it seems. This is only one of the philosophical puzzlers raised in Albert’s Toothache. The Wise Owl questions are designed not so much to elicit the "right answer" as to invite young students to think critically and imaginatively about philosophical ideas, using their own language and drawing upon their own experiences.
"Dragons and Giants" from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

"Dragons and Giants" is a story about bravery. But it doesn't exactly demonstrate what bravery is, or explain how to tell whether someone is brave. Instead it shows what bravery is not (running away from danger and hiding in a bed or a closet) and how not to tell whether you are brave (by, say, looking in a mirror). Both children and adults laugh at Frog's and Toad's foolish behavior and at the foolishness of what they say. Our laughter shows that we recognize an inappropriateness, a conceptual gap between bravery and the efforts of these creatures to deal with it. Our amusement can cajole us into reflecting on why we laugh, on what bravery really is, and on how we can tell whether someone is brave.
I Know a Lady by Charlotte Zolotow

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

I Know a Lady is a sensitive story about an elderly woman and the young children in her neighborhood. It provides a natural context for discussing intergenerational relationships. In particular, students reflect on the value of this unique kind of friendship. The story also stimulates discussion about life-styles. A child does not freely choose his or her own life-style. It emerges from family background, socioeconomic status, and geographic location. Adults may also feel constrained by a specific role in society, feeling they have no choice except to drop out.
Many Moons by James Thurber

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

James Thurber's story, Many Moons, invites us to view and think about the moon in a fresh way, both as it is in itself and as it may appear to people. In doing so we may increase our powers of observation as well as our capacity to enter imaginatively into the lives of others. We may also learn to think more clearly about appearance and reality, and how the two are related.
The Bear That Wasn't by Frank Tashlin

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

In this classic children’s book (available at The Open Library), a bear wakes up from winter hibernation to find that his forest has been replaced by a factory. To make matters even worse, every human he on the assembly line and in the corporate offices, and every bear he meets at the zoo and the circus, insists that he's not even a bear, just a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat. As Gareth B. Matthews observed, the book’s “philosophical whimsy” raises a host of basic epistemological and metaphysical questions.
The Bee-Man of Orn by Frank R. Stockton

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

The Bee-Man of Orn is an enjoyable yarn, beautifully illustrated by Maurice Sendak. It is also an intellectually stimulating story. Use it to think with your students about challenging ideas like unusual friendships, magic, bravery, and growing up.
"The Garden" from Frog and Toad Together by Arnold Lobel

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

"The Garden" is a story about causes and causal explanations. Discussing it with your students can be an informal introduction to the philosophy of science. It also raises philosophical questions about whether things in nature have thoughts and feelings the way human beings do, the nature of patience, and how we can tell what is the true cause of some event.
The Real Thief by William Steig

Gareth B. Matthews, Lenore Carlisle Reilly, and Shari Tishman

The Real Thief is an unusual stmy about clime and punishment. The author sensitively descrtbes the thief's feelings and motives before and after he steals from the King's treasury. William Steig does not lead the reader to condone Derek's actions or even excuse him. However, readers are likely to envision themselves doing the clime and learning from its consequences.