A Friendship for Today
A Friendship for Today. McKissack, Patricia C.;
Scholastic Press, 2007.
Grade Level: Grades 3-5
ISBN & cost: 978-0-439-66098-3, $16.99
Blanket Permission to Reproduce Book Jackets:
Used by permission of the Publisher
Synopsis:
Rosemary wonders if she’ll ever fit in. A black student, she has been sent to an integrated, nearly all white school, where her old neighborhood nemesis (“Grace the Tasteless,” as Rosemary calls her), a white student, attends. On top of that, Rosemary has to deal with her own problems at home. Her parents aren’t getting along, and her best friend is struck with polio.
General Review:
We all need to learn to practice “tolerance,” says Rosemary’s teacher Mrs. Denapolis. Have you ever tried to get along with someone who from the outside appears to be very different from you? Rosemary and Grace KNOW they won’t like each other even before the school year starts. Can they learn to tolerate each other? And what about “Katherine the Great Mouth,” who acts like she thinks she’s better than both of them? There might be more than meets the eye to the real-life situation that somebody else lives in, but we may never even try to make friends with others we judge to be living in a world just too different from the way of life we know.
Themes: School integration, racism, race relations, divorce, African-Americans, friendship; Missouri history--20th Century, poliomyelitis
Author information: Volume 51, 73 Something About the Author
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/contributor.jsp?id=3372
http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=20049
Discussion Questions: (Standard 3; Benchmark 3)
1. What are some examples of prejudice in the story? Why do you think the author chooses to include them?
2. Describe Vera’s relationship with her mother. Describe her relationship with her father. How do these relationships affect her actions?
3. What part does “Rags” play in the story?
4. Does Rosemary learn “tolerance?” How does the story show this?
5. How can you be a friend? What could you do to help Grace if she was in our class, and didn’t have a dress to attend the Spring Garden Concert. Why won’t her father let her accept Rosemary’s the dress?
Activities:
1. Research poliomyelitis. What causes it? How dangerous is it? How does it spread? What is the best treatment and how can it be prevented? Write a short paper explaining the disease and discussing how the treatment of the illness has changed over time. (Standard 2, Benchmark 4)
2. Look up information on school integration in the United States. Draw a historical timeline of school integration in the United States, beginning in 1954. (Standard 3, Benchmark 1)
3. For more information on “tolerance,” visit online the Museum of Tolerance, Simon Wiesenthal Center. http://www.museumoftolerance.com/ List five things you learned about the importance of tolerance. (Standard 3 Benchmark 3)
Similar Books for Further Reading
· Don’t Say Ain’t, by Small, Irene
· My Mother The Cheerleader, by Sharenow, Robert
· Where You Belong, by McGuigan, Mary Ann
Bravo Zulu, Samantha!
Bravo Zulu, Samantha! Kathleen Benner Duble;
Peachtree, Atlanta, 2007
Grade Level: grades 3-5
ISBN & cost: ISBN: 9781561454013, $14.95
Blanket Permission to Reproduce Book Jackets:
Reprinted with permission of Peachtree Publishers
Synopsis:
Samantha does not want to spend the summer with her grandparents, but her parents will be gone, and don’t think she is old enough to stay alone. Actually, Grandma is pretty cool, but the “Colonel” (her grandpa) thinks he is still back in the military, and will be so impossible to get along with!
General Review:
We can learn so much about ourselves by looking at the relationships between characters in a book like this. Samantha and the “Colonel” can’t imagine that they can get along all summer, but discover that perhaps they have much to learn from each other. This point of view might help all of us when trying to get along with others we see as so different from ourselves.
Themes: (Grandfathers – Juvenile fiction; Airplanes, Home-built – Juvenile fiction; Contests – Juvenile fiction; Flight – Juvenile fiction; Family – Juvenile fiction
Author information: Online information available through Kansas State Library free databases.
Blue Skyways. http://skyways.lib.ks.us/library/databases.html
Go to Literature Resource Center and search author’s name for helpful information.
Also Author’s website: http://www.kathleenduble.com/
Discussion Questions: (Standard 3; Benchmark 3)
1. How did retirement affect the colonel? Why did he say: “Retired people are brain dead”? (p. 9). Can you imagine why he might feel this way?
2. Why did the Colonel try to be sure that Samantha’s grandma didn’t know about his top secret project? Why did he feel the need to hide information like this from someone who obviously cared about him?
3. How do Samantha’s feelings toward the Colonel change throughout the story? What about the Colonel’s feeling toward her? Give examples of interactions between two that illustrate changes in their feelings.
4. What did Sam’s mom mean when she said “Sometimes things aren’t about what you want but about what others need”? (p. 117) What happened in the story that relate to this statement?
Activities:
1. Look in the back of the book for “Sources of Sam’s and Colonel’s Facts.” Locate several of these books in your library, and look through one to select the most outrageous or weird facts in your opinion. Would Sam agree with your ideas? How about the Colonel? (Standard 2, Benchmark 5)
2. Turn to the Author’s Note at the end of the book. Do Internet research on “EAAAir Venture Oshkosh.” Write an advertisement for this gathering that might have motivated the Colonel to carry out his secret project. (Standard 3, Benchmark 4)
3. Find out about the history of the NATO phonetic alphabet, as described on pages 63 and 73-74. Collaborating with classmates, prepare a poster or graphic display that explains the meaning and history of changes of the phonetic alphabet. (Standard 9, Benchmark 4)
4. Invite an expert on aviation to speak to your class about some aeronautical principles the Colonel was concerned with when building the plane, and terms used in the book, such as “canard” (p.71). Have students prepare questions for the speaker. (Standard 3, Benchmark 2)
Similar Books for Further Reading
· Walks Two Moons by Sharon Creech
· Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
· The World Record Paper Airplane Book by Ken Blackburn, Jeff Lammers
· Wright Brothers: How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman
Dexter the Tough
Dexter the Tough, Margaret Peterson Haddix;
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2007
Grade Level: 2 – 5
ISBN and cost: 978-1-4169-1159-3, 1-4169-1159-6; $13.57
Blanket Permission to Reproduce Book Jackets:
Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
Synopsis:
Dexter, the new student, puts on a “tuf” act the first day of school. His writing assignment tells the class just that. As the teacher continues the writing experience, Dexter looks deep into his actions, and the response they generate from others.
General Review:
Haddix creates the story of a boy struggling to deal with his father facing cancer, being the new student in a school, and missing his parents. Through a writing assignment, his teacher helps Dexter find the true source for his anger.
Themes: Family Life, New Experiences, School Stories, Cancer
Discussion Questions: (Standard 3; Benchmark 3)
1. New students enter a class at various times in the school year. Have you had a new student in your class? What did you notice about their acceptance in the classroom? What are things you have done to welcome a new student? Have any of you been the new student? What made your move easier? What made it difficult to be part of the class?
2. Dexter’s father had a very serious illness. Have any of your parents ever been very ill? What changes did the illness create in your family? What did you do to feel better during the illness? Who could you talk to if your parents are not able to discuss the situation with you?
Activities:
1. Research cancer. Find out some treatment methods, and side effects of the treatment. (Standard 2, Benchmark 4)
2. Think about a time you were very scared of something. Write a poem about your fear. (Standard 5, Benchmark 3)
Similar Books for Further Reading
· Savvy by Ingrid Law
· Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney
· Starting with Alice by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
· Runt: Story of a Boy by V. M. Caldwell
Home of the Brave
Home of the Brave, by Katherine Applegate,
Feiwel & Friends Publishers, 2007
Grade level: 4 – 7
ISBN & cost (hardback): 9781439594414; $17.59
ISBN & cost (paperback): 9780312535636; $6.99
Blanket Permission to Reproduce Book Jackets:
Used by permission of the Publisher
Synopsis:
Applegate uses first-person narrative and free verse to capture a Sudanese refugee’s impressions of America and his slow adjustment. Eleven-year-old Kek, who has seen great loss and sadness in his life, comes to live with his aunt and cousin in Minnesota. Prefaced by an African proverb, each section of the book marks a stage in the Kek’s assimilation. We readers recognize Kek’s initial confusion and how it fades as his survival skills improve and his friendships take root in Minnesota. We also share in Kek’s hope that his mother has survived the violence and that he will one day be reunited with her.
General Review:
This story gives us readers a memorable inside view of an outsider coming to America. Katherine Applegate’s precise, succinct language brings a wide range of emotions to us. Very few children’s and young adult books have dealt with the War in Sudan (Darfur) and its victims. This book has the opportunity to educate our young Kansans about this important issue, and would make a wonderful read-aloud in any middle school classroom.
Themes: War in Sudan (Darfur), African Refugee Camps, Immigration, Survivor guilt, America’s image in the world, Family love and loyalty.
Author Information:
“After Katherine Applegate graduated from college, she spent time waiting tables, typing (badly), watering plants, wandering randomly from one place to the next with her boyfriend, and just generally wasting her time. When she grew sufficiently tired of performing brain-dead minimum-wage work, she decided it was time to become a famous writer. Anyway, a writer. Writing proved to be an ideal career choice, as it involved neither physical exertion nor uncomfortable clothing, and required no social skills.
Ms. Applegate has written more than one hundred books under her own name and a variety of pseudonyms. She has no children, is active in no organizations, and has never been invited to address a joint session of Congress. She does, however, have an evil, foot-biting cat named Dick, and she still enjoys wandering randomly from one place to the next with her boyfriend.” (http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Katherine-Applegate/4063)
Discussion Questions:
1. This America is hard work. This is one of Kek’s first realizations. Talk with students about why it is so hard even though many people think that Americans have it too easy. How is it especially hard for newcomers to the United States?
2. Of all the things I didn’t know about America, this is the most amazing: I didn’t know there would be so many tribes from all over the world. How could I have imagined the way they walk through world side by side without fear all free to gaze at the same sky with the same hopes? The issue of immigration is a topic that is being debated in our government and throughout our country. Questions to consider are:
· Should we make it easier for people to immigrate to America or enforce stricter quotas?
· Do immigrants add to the economy or take jobs away from American citizens?
· Should illegal immigrants be allowed to stay in America and seek to gain legal status or be sent back to their home countries?
3. Hannah takes Kek to the grocery store to buy food for her foster mother.
The grocery store had rows and rows of color, of light, of easy hope. …I stand like a rooted tree firm, my eyes too full of this place, with its answers to prayers on every shelf. I reach out and touch a piece of bright green food I’ve never seen before. And then I begin to cry.
Discuss with your students Kek’s emotional reaction when he sees the shelves lined with food. Do your students take this for granted? How much is too much? Do we need dozens of varieties of breakfast cereal and half dozen kinds of cola?
4. Gol is a cow, but Katherine Applegate also uses her as a symbol. Ask your students how Gol represent Kek’s past, present, and future.
5. What are the most important things that happen to Kek in his first year in America that make him begin to feel at home?
6. As a final discussion, talk about why Katherine Applegate titled the novel Home of the Brave.
Activities: (Reading Standard One, Benchmark Four and Reading Standard Two, Benchmark One)
1. The background for Home of the Brave is the civil war that devastated the Sudan on and off from the 1950’s to the 1990’s and the ethnic war in the Darfur region of Sudan that has raged from 2003 to the present. In order for our students to understand the plight of Kek and the millions of Sudanese people affected by the war, research and then discuss recent history of the Sudan as a whole and the Darfur region in particular.
These websites may be useful in helping American students understand the issue:
· http://hrw.org/doc/?t=africa&c=sudan
· http://www.genocideintervention.net/educate/darfurinfo/
· http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/sudan/htm
Questions to consider are:
· What is the ethnic makeup of Sudan?
· Why were the wars fought?
· Who was fighting whom?
· What role did the Sudanese government play?
· What happened to the people?
· How did the world community respond?
· What were the consequences?
· Figurative Language: This book contains some examples of idioms; Kek was confused by these.
· P. 60 – “The kids will eat you alive.”
· P. 108 – “You need some time to get your feet wet.”
· P. 115 – “Meantime, keep your eyes open.”
· How many other idioms can your students list? View the website:
http://www.sky-net-eye.com/eng/dictionary/english/idioms/american
2. Similes were used by Kek to compare his new experiences and friends to his “real” home in Africa and to his “real” family members. Starting on p. 2, readers will find simile after simile after simile. Have students list as many as they can.