In Pippa Park Raises Her Game, Erin Yun reimagines Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations to create her own unique story. You can use her approach as inspiration to begin your own retelling!

Throughout her creative process, Erin has explained how experimenting with Dickens’s themes, characters, and plot points helped her create something new and personal from the source material. The Write Your Own Retelling Writing Activity guides readers through character and plot analysis of a classic story they choose. It also encourages them to think like authors, find their own voices, and build creativity, critical-thinking skills, and self-expression through writing.
 

For example, in Great Expectations, Pip has a mysterious benefactor who helps him become a wealthy gentleman. In Pippa Park Raises Her Game, Pippa receives an unexpected basketball scholarship to a private school, opening the door to new opportunities. Although the stories share similarities, Erin drew on her own experiences—including her middle school friendships and Korean American background—to create a fresh reimagining for young readers.

Erin writes: “While I had a lot of fun figuring out which pieces of Great Expectations would carry over to my reimagining, I also wanted to make sure that Pippa Park Raises Her Game would stand out as its own story and could be appreciated by kids who had never heard of Dickens.”  

Write Your Own Retelling Activity: Just like how Erin drew from both her own experiences and Charles Dickens's Great Expectations while writing Pippa Park Raises Her Game, this worksheet walks readers through the same steps she used so they can write their own retelling. Download the printable writing prompts and start writing!