Message in a BottleExamining the themes in Peter Brown’s

“The Wild Robot”

The Story Behind The Message in the Bottle

A message in a bottle is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container and released into a medium, archetypically a bottle released into a large body of water.

Messages in bottles have been used in crowdsourced scientific studies of ocean currents, as well as to send distress messages, memorial tributes, final reports and letters from those believing themselves to be doomed, invitations to prospective pen pals, and letters to actual or imagined love interests.

Message-in-a-bottle lore has often been of a romantic or poetic nature.Source: Wikipedia

Author’s Message

...in a bottle

DIRECTIONS:1. Review the theme videos on the next slide.2. Practice thinking about theme by

expanding on ideas from the topics chart (heart diagram) and “From Topic to Theme”

3. Create a theme statement of your own.4. Explain your thematic statement using

supportive evidence from the text. What is the author trying to tell us about the life lesson that you have identified in this text?

5. Add your theme statement to the “Message in a Bottle” Slide Deck. (see Google Classroom for the EDIT link)

THEMEa main idea or an underlying meaning

of a literary work that may be stated directly or indirectly

(Click HERE and HERE for a quick review)

From TopicFirst choose an important Thematic Topic/s From “The Wild Robot”OutsidersAdapting to SurviveFamily RelationshipsNature’s Delicate BalanceCollaborationNature vs. Nurture

•Add your own:

From Topic to ThemeTo Theme: State the thematic ideas for the topic as a complete sentence that the author believes to be a universal truth:Example: Caring for our natural environment as well as all those who inhabit it are the key to survival.(note: This is one possible statement of many that would also be correct about what the author is trying to tell us about life. There is no one right answer here and this book has multiple themes. I want to know what you got from the text.

Now write your own theme statement here:

THEME POSTERS:I found these images on Amazon.com and they are the creations of Peter Brown author and illustrator When I saw them it occurred to me that they were each a clue to what the author’s message was in this story. Create an image with a message about a life lesson found in this text using a quote to support the theme that you identified.

Theme Statement

Add images Add a quote from the text that supports your statement.

My Example:

Add a quote from the text that supports your statement.