Christine+G.

=Book Summary #1: =

**Name**: Chris Gross-Rhode **1. Book Title:** Graceling **2. Author:** Kristin Cashore **3. Date of Publication:** 2008 **4. What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words. ** This book takes place in a time when people... Some people possess great talents called Graces. These "gracelings" are esily identified by because their eyes are two differnt colors. They are sometimes valued and sometimes feared by those around them. Katsa is a young woman whose Grace is fighting/killing if necessary. Katas's uncle is King Randa of Middlun. Since the death of her own parents, King Randa has used Katsa for punishing and instilling fear into his people and his enemies. At the age of 16, Katsa decided to use her Grace to help people and with the help of her cousin Raffin form a council of people who are organized to help others. The Council has planned the rescue and hiding of an old man and Katsa is sent to do it. Po is also a Graceling and is comes to visit the old man, his grandfather. Po's Grace is the ability to sense other people's senses, movements and thoughts. Katsa defies the King's order to force a man to turn over his young daughter to marry one of the King's friends. She and Po escape the anger of the King by going to find not only who kidnapped his grandfather and is keeping Po's aunt in seclusion.

Leck is a young orphaned one-eyed boy who is taken in by the childless king and queen of Monsea. They eventually make him heir to the throne. Shortly after, the king and queen die and Leck becomes King. Everyone likes Leck but Po doesn't trust him. When Leck's wife, Po's aunt, takes their only child Bitterblue and goes into hiding, Po suspects him as having a Grace that makes everyone believe him. Po and Katsa team up to save Bitterblue from her father.

This book could be a way to discuss the meaning of power. Who possesses power? What makes someone powerful? What are the disadvantages of having power? Is there responsibility with power? After discussing the book you could put students in "power" simulations and debate, enact, or discuss how the characters should use their power.
 * 5. How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title? **

1. Po said (pg 182) "It humbles me but it doesn't humiliate me." What do you think he means by this? 2. Po can sense people's emotions and thereefore it seems he can read minds. Would this be a good thing? Why? Give some examples. 3. Po's Grace is the ability to sense others' emotions, thoughts, and movements. Katsa's Grace is the ability to fight many people at a time and win. Which Grace do you think is more valuable? Why?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">6. Write three higher level thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book. **

= = = **Book Summary #2:** =

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**Name**: Chris Gross-Rhode <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**1. Book Title**: Uglies <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**2. Author**: Scott Westerfeld <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**3. Date of Publication:** 2005

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**4. What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">On their sixteenth birthday, citizens of Uglyville (called Uglies) undergo extensive surgery that will make them beautiful. They will then be relocated in New Pretty Town. Her friend Peris left three months ago and Tally Youngblood is anxious to join him. Before she goes, Tally makes a new friend in Shay another girl who will turn 16 right before Tally. Shay has met David from The Smoke, a community of rebellious Uglies that leave before becoming “pretty” and live outside of the control of the leaders in Uglyville and New Pretty Town. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">When Shay makes the decision to escape to “The Smoke”, Tally is confronted by a special force called Special Circumstances (Specials). She is given the option of helping them find Shay and the rest of the Smokies or never be allowed to become a Pretty. After a long journey Tally finds the Smokies. As she lives with them, she reconsiders whether or not being a Pretty is worth betraying her new friends. Tally wakes one morning to find their settlement being overrun by the Specials. She realizes that when she burned the locator device she actually activated it, giving away her location. She and David escape and then make their way back to Uglyville to rescue the others, but not until after Shay has been altered into a Pretty. In the end, David learns that Tally betrayed him and his community. Tally realizes that the only way to save Shay is to go back to Uglyville to become a Pretty so David’s mother and community can learn more about the brain alterations that happen in the process of becoming a Pretty.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**5. How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">This book could spark interesting discussions about the meaning of “pretty” and “ugly” in our society. Are there any stereotypes that are associated with each label? What betrayals or other obstacles often occur when people try to move from being an “ugly” to a “pretty”?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Early in the book you could speculate with the class how the old civilization (ours) died out. Later in the book, Tally finds out that the beginning of the end occurred when someone created a “bug” that attacked oil. Discuss how wiping out the oil supply caused the destruction of civilization as we know it.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Westerfeld points out Tally’s amazement that the Rusties used steel for everything and newspapers were read every day and then simply thrown away. Brainstorm a list of environmental cautions that Westerfeld is alluding to when Tally observes the environmental neglect of the Rusties.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**6. Write three higher-level thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">a) What are some of the similarities between the society of the Uglies/Pretties and societies of other science fiction/futuristic books such as George Orwell’s 1984 or Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">b) How did Tally feel about working hard enough to get blisters when she was living in The Smoke? What message do you think Westerfeld is sending to his readers by bringing that up in the story line?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">c) Tally moves from being hesitant to wearing real leather because it was animal skin to learning to survive in The Smoke by using animals for survival. What position do you //think// Westerfeld has on eating meat? Wearing leather shoes? Wearing a luxurious fur coat?

**Book Summary #3:**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">1. **Book Title:** Leviathan <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">2. **Author**: Scott Westerfeld <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">3. **Date of Publication:** 2009

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">4. **What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Aleck is the son of Austrian Archduke and wife who were assassinated in Sarajevo at the beginning of WW I. Count Volger sneaks Alek out of the country in a walker (a large tanklike machine that walks through the forests). Alek could not inherit the throne of his father because his mother did not have royal blood. After his father’s death, Alek finds out his father met with the Pope who wrote a dispensation of ruling that would allow Alek to inherit the throne under the condition that no one knows about it until after the death of the current emperor.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Deryn/Dylan Sharp is a girl pretending to be a boy so that she can try to qualify for the London/British Air Service. She developed a love of flying large balloons from her father. Deryn's natural talent lands her duty on the Leviathan which is a large Darwinist animal that has evolved to be a flying machine similar to a zeppelin used during WW I.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">When the Leviathan crash lands near the castle/fort that Alek and his entourage are hiding out in, Alek goes out to see what happened and meets Deryn/Dylan. At first Alek is greeted with hostility until the Darwinists realize he is not there to hurt them. Eventually Alek’s people come looking for him and both sides work together to defeat a group of Germans looking for Alek. It is finally decided that the best way to protect Alek is for him to escape in the crippled Leviathan back to England.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">5. **How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">This would be a difficult book to use with an entire class. If I were to try to do so, I would probably begin by discussing the circumstances surrounding the beginning of World War I and the countries that were fighting against each other. I would also briefly discuss Darwin theories of evolution since that is the basis for the creation of Leviathan.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">6. **Write three higher-level thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">a) Discuss an actual historical event that happened during this time period and how Westerfeld added a science fiction dimension to that event. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">b) Do you think the story would have woven in a similar matter if Alex and Deryn were not teens but were adults? How? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">c) The Darwinists were able to make animals evolve into machine-like beings. Use your imagination to "create" and describe a type of evolved animal-machine that would be helpful in modern day warfare.


 * Book Summary - Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">1. **Book Title:** The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">2. **Author:** Sherman Alexie <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">3. **Date of Publication:** 2007 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">4. **What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> When Junior opens his textbook and sees his mother’s name listed as a student who used it, he becomes frustrated with a system that would use 30-year old textbooks. After encouragement from a teacher, he decides to leave the reservation school and attend an all-white school off of the reservation. He tells of the rejection from tribal friends and the challenges to fit in with people whose lives are very different from his and others who live on the reservation. Junior tells his story with frank detail about being surrounded by poverty, alcoholism, violence, death, and people who have given up on life. In a strange twist, it is after the deaths of friends and finally his sister that makes his “white” classmates finally realize the challenges he faces everyday and finally befriend him.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**5. How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">a) Before or while reading the book, research the history behind the purpose of the reservations. Discuss ways that the reservation system has failed the Indian population. Junior makes the statement that “Indians have forgotten that reservations were supposed to be death camps.” (pg. 217). Discuss the validity of that statement. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">b) Discuss the ways that Junior copes with 1) rejection of his Indian friends, 2) the challenge of trying to fit into a new setting, 3) the death of friends/family. How do most teenagers deal with it? Is it similar or different than Junior?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**6. Write three higher-level thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">1) This book is a frank discussion about life on a reservation. Junior talks frankly about living with poverty, low self-esteem, violence, alcoholism, and the deaths of several close friends and family members. Sherman Alexie wrote it in the first person from the perspective of a fourteen-year old boy. How might the book’s content and appeal have changed if it had been written in the third person? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">2) Junior’s friend Gordy says that “life is a constant struggle between being an individual and a member of a community” (pg. 131). How was that true in Junior’s life? <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">3) Junior is waiting outside for his father to come get him after hearing about his sister’s death. He is worried his father will be killed in a car accident before he gets there. (pg. 203) He thinks to himself “How Indian would that be” What does he mean by that?

**Book Summary #4**

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**1. Book Title:** Chains – (Historical Fiction) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**2. Author:** Laurie Halse Anderson <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**3. Date of Publication:** 2008 <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**4. What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Isabel is a young slave girl during beginning of the Revolutionary war. Her father was sold away from the family and her mother died of small pox. She was responsible for taking care of her five-year-old sister who had health issues. When her kind owner dies, the owner's nephew ignores Isabel's claim that her owner's will has the instructions to free her slaves. He sells Isabel and her sister Ruth to a loyalist couple with strong British connections who mistreat them. Isabel meets a slave boy, Curzon, who encourages her to spy on her owners. She hopes that if she gives the rebels valuable information, they will help her escape from her owners. She soon learns that the colonies' fight for freedom does not include freedom for slaves. Isabel's world is turned upside down when she wakes up from a "drugged" sleep to find out that her master has sold her little sister. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> When Isabel's friend, Curzon, signs up to fight with the revolutionaries and is captured by the British, she risks punishment to bring food to him as he and his fellow prisoners are dying of starvation and disease.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**5. How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> This book could be used to remind students of some of the history of the war for independence that is not emphasized in the history books. The Appendix of the book gives information such as the fact that probably only 40% of the colonists wanted to break free from England. Of the rest, 20% were most likely fierce loyalists while the other 40% were for what ever side was winning at the time. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> There could be interesting discussion that most of the rebels including many famous people, did not see any correlation between their fight for freedom and that of the slaves. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> Students could be encouraged to research the quotes that begin each chapter to learn the context in which those words were spoken and if these

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**6. Write three higher-level thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">a) What age do you think Isabel was? (I never saw where the book mentions her age.) Name some of her attributes that made her seem older than she probably was. (Her ability to cook, clean, etc. her knowledge of home remedies for healing, and her sense of responsibility. The long hours and hard work she had to do.) What are some things that make her seem younger? (She is still growing out of her clothes. Her description of things that are happening to her such as her reference to her "brainpan," the "bees" in her head, etc.)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">b) Historians estimate that as many as five thousand African American slaves fought on the colonists side. At the same time, tens of thousands of them fought for the British. Create a Venn diagram of the reasons why slaves fought for each side during the war.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">c) In the story there are some people who, while they were not publicly opposed to slavery, their actions made you believe that they were not totally comfortable with it. Name some of these people (Mary Finch, Lady Seymour, Jenny from the tavern, the owner of the book store, etc.) What did they do to help or reduce the misery of the slaves? Why did they not do more?

**Book Summary #5** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">1. **Book Title**: Claudette Colvin //Twice Toward Justice -// (Non Fiction) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">2. **Author**: Phillip Hoose <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">3. **Date of Publication**: 2009

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">**4. What is the book about? Give brief plot summary in your own words.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">Claudette Colvin was a 15-year old junior at Booker T. Washington High School in Montgomery Alabama. Claudette’s goals were to graduate from high school, attend college and become a lawyer. Maybe then she would be able to work to change the laws that segregated her in all facets of her life. The “Jim Crow” laws of the South were a constant in her young life. This book does a great job of describing the many ways these “laws” affected the lives of African-Americans for over 100 years. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">On March 2, 1955 Claudette’s life and the lives of many would never be the same. Claudette and three friends left after school, boarded an empty city bus, and took their seats halfway back leaving room on the front of the bus for white passengers. The bus began to fill with both black and white passengers until a white woman ordered the girls to leave their seats and stand so she could sit. Claudette’s friends left their seats leaving three seats (one next to Claudette and two across the aisle) empty. Since Jim Crow laws did not allow black passengers to sit anywhere in the row with a white passenger, Claudette was expected to also leave her seat…giving one white woman the entire row. “Right then, I decided I wasn’t going to take it anymore. I hadn’t planned it out, but my decision was built on a lifetime of nasty experiences.” <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> This event took place nine months before Rosa Parks made her famous stand against segregation. Although the NAACP, Rosa Parks (who was already involved in the civil rights movement) and other prominent black leaders defended Claudette, she was still convicted of violating the law. In the book, Claudette and the author speculate why it was Rosa Park’s case that ended up being the catalyst for the NAACP and community leaders to organize the Montgomery bus boycott. Unlike Rosa, whose name became synonymous with the civil rights movement, Claudette was shunned at school by classmates who were afraid to cause trouble. She also became pregnant which further alienated her and forced her to drop out of school. Claudette, along with Rosa Parks, was one of four people who testified in the court hearing Browder vs. Gayle that eventually struck down the segregation laws of the south. Although she earned her GED, she still had difficulties finding work even as a waitress because of her notoriety. Claudette later moved to New York City and avoided the limelight until the author of this book heard about her and requested permission to write her story. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> I __highly__ __recommend__ this book because of its content and easy to read style.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">5. **How could a teacher use this book in the classroom? What instructional strategies might you choose to incorporate with this particular title?** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;"> This is a great book that could be used with middle or high school students. I am going to suggest it to our 6th grade teachers who still incorporate a story-time in their classrooms. The book combines third-person narration as the author tells the story with first-person accounts/quotes from Claudette Colvin about what was happening to her at the time. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">This could also be used as part of a history curriculum on all levels. The author gives a lot of background information about the historical events. There are many pictures and sidebars that help the reader understand more about what was going on at the time. You could also display some of the pictures on an overhead to lead discussion about what it would have been like to live in those times. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">My father tells of his experience (and his discomfort with it) in the Navy during World War II when he would see black soldiers not allowed to eat in the regular dining areas in the South. Encourage kids to interview their grandparents, neighbors or friends who lived during this time and witnessed segregation.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">6. **Write three higher level-thinking questions that you might use in a culminating discussion of this book.** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">a) Name three ways that segregation laws affected daily life for Claudette, her family and friends. Which one do you think would be the most difficult to abide by? Why?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">b) Claudette’s stand against segregation on Montgomery buses took place before Rosa Park challenged the laws. While Claudette’s protest was an impromptu decision, Rosa’s was planned. What were some things that Rosa learned from Claudette’s experience that helped her? What did Rosa do differently from Claudette?

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 90%;">c) Pretend that you have an opportunity to interview a person (black or white) who lived during this time. What are some questions you would ask them?