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Grades level iconsGrades 4–8
Genre information iconNarrative
Video resource type iconVideos

Interviewing Inanimate Objects with Daniel Handler

by Daniel Handler
Author Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, shows there are no limits to imagination with this interviewing activity.
About the Author

Daniel Handler is the author of 7 novels, including his most recent work Bottle Grove. Under the name Lemony Snicket, he wrote the 13-volume A Series of Unfortunate Events, the 4-volume series All the Wrong Questions, and The Dark.

What Your Students Will Learn

Your students will learn how to write interview questions and how to think like an inanimate object.

What Your Students Will Produce

Students will produce the questions and answers to an interview that could provide characterization for a future story.

What You Will Do

Daniel Handler, who is often mistaken as Lemony Snicket, offers an activity to help students think like a candlestick, or a pencil, or a cactus! This prompt was originally a contribution to 826 National’s A Good Time to Write project, an online resource providing new writing opportunities and encouragement to young people during the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about A Good Time to Write here.

First, watch Daniel Handler explain how he executes this prompt by watching the video. Next, grab or think of an inanimate object (“inanimate” means not alive). Then, brainstorm a list of characteristics that that object might possess. For example, a table lamp could be really outgoing because of how it lights up a room. Maybe it also really loves the color green. Your characterization of the object doesn’t have to make sense to anyone but you.

After you brainstorm the object’s characteristics, create interview questions that you...

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