What to read after K Is in Trouble?

K is always getting into trouble, but he’s never exactly sure what he’s done wrong. The adults around him are no help—in fact, they only seem to make K’s problems worse!

First, K is late for school and forced to wait in a cold, windowless room before he can see the principal. Luckily, he meets a talking beetle who provides him an escape from the drudgery of school life — both figuratively and literally! But it’s only the start of K’s problems as trouble seems to follow him everywhere: whether he’s on a class trip, at the fish market or even home sick in bed. From an austere headmistress to a mysterious flock of crows, an unpleasant train station officer to a talking carp, K never knows who is a friend—and who isn’t trying to help at all. All the while, K tries to do as he’s told, with funny but uneven results.

In these five darkly humorous stories, acclaimed author and illustrator Gary Clement takes inspiration from the work of Franz Kafka to explore the feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, absurdity and humor that are the instantly recognizable hallmarks of being a child in an adult’s world.

Key Text Features

illustrations

Correlates to the Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.4.3

Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character's thoughts, words, or actions).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.3

Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.5.7

Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.6.3

Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.