The Gremlins

High school (ages 12+)
Art & Creativity

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/the-gremlins

1. What is the publication year?
2. What is the initial commission?
3. What are gremlins in Roald Dahl's book?
4. Why did the pilot in the story talk to the gremlins instead of fighting them?

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the publication year?1943
2. What is the initial commission?Developed for Walt Disney Productions for a planned animated film
3. What are gremlins in Roald Dahl's book?Gremlins are small, mischievous creatures that pilots believed were causing strange problems with their planes during World War II.
4. Why did the pilot in the story talk to the gremlins instead of fighting them?He tried to make them his allies by asking them to stop sabotaging planes and help fight the Nazis, showing that talking can solve problems.

Wartime Folklore: Traditional stories and beliefs that emerge and circulate during periods of armed conflict.
Allegory: A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Intellectual Property: Creations of the mind, such as inventions and literary works, that have legal rights associated with them.
Authorial Control: The degree of creative authority and decision-making power an author has over their work.