Teen Living

Title: Bud, not Buddy,
Author: Christopher Paul Curtis
Publisher: Delacort
ISBN: 9780553494105
Suggested Course: Teen Living

This Newbery Award and Corretta Scott King Author Award winning book is great to use during the week of standardized testing or during Black History month. Students can read paragraphs orally and discuss main topics. The story is set in the 1930’s and it is about a young African American man who mother dies and left him a suitcase with some papers. According to the papers Bud thinks his father is a great musician Herman E. Calloway. Bud decides to search for his father. The book emphasizes the struggle faced by the young man during the Great Depression as he tries to find his father. However it does have some very funny and touching moments. Bud has devised his own set of rules on being successful. These are great! The book is also available on audio CD. For additional links and teaching activities search www.carolhurst.com/title/budnotbuddy.html

Activities: Set: Begin the unit by reading the poem by Langston Hughes A Dream Deferred. Pose the question, what happens to a dream deferred? Elaborate on various student responses. Expose students to other works of Langston Hughes. Discuss Harlem Renaissance and how the art (music and literature) helped individuals manage with difficult times. Follow up with another poem my Langston Hughes Motto.

1. Discuss the goals and values of families during the time of the Great Depression.
2. Identify the stressor of the individuals and families at that time in history.
3. Discuss how this historical event affected individual wants and needs
4. Identify the goals and values of Bud.
5. How did Bud reach his goals?
6. Have the students write a paragraph on how Bud’s family relationships affected his goal and values. While writing the paragraphs allow the students the opportunity to listen to jazz music and blues music of the 1920’ and 1930’s- if possible include Cab Calloway.
7. Students can also identify a personal goal and make up his/her own set of rules on being successful in reaching his/her goal.
   

Title: Holes
Author: Louis Sachar
Publisher: Yearling
ISBN: 0-440-41480-6

Review: The lives of two young men coincide at a juvenile detention center, Camp Green Lake.  Stanley Yelnats and Hester Zeroni ,also known as Zero, whose ancestors’ paths had crossed in the old country, became friends while serving time. The young juveniles tire of digging holes for a riches seeking overseer and run away.  Days later they reappear to solve the mystery of Green Lake, a dried up lake bed in the desert. While riches are found, the greater discovery lies in the friendship and family resolution of Stanley and Zero.

Suggested Questions/Discussion Points:

1. How may character be built?
2. How realistic is it to think people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and then must pay the consequences?
3. Research the types and food value of onions?
4. If a friend asked you to teach them to read, how would you begin?
5. Is it possible that when a story is repeated enough one begins to believe it so?  To live as if it was true such as the curse upon the Yelnats’ family?

Follow Up:  In 2003, Disney released the movie Holes(rated PG).  If your school permits, the film could be shown after the book has been read.  Allow the students to compare and contrast the book and movie.  Why were certain aspects completely changed in the movie from the author’s depiction? Did the film cast mirror your mental image of the characters in the book?

Title: I Am David
Author: Anne Holm
Publisher: Harcourt, Inc.
ISBN: 0-15-205161-9

Review: David at twelve years of age escaped from a Bulgarian labor camp.  From his earliest memories he has been a prisoner of the camp; therefore, functioning alone in the world outside of confinement was a daily, almost moment-by-moment, trial.  Issues of trust loom large and complicate every aspect of living—food, shelter, and clothing. 

Upon his escape, David was provided a compass, a piece of bread, and vague directions to seek refuge in Denmark by a guard who aided his leaving.  David’s strong will and wisdom, which had been nurtured by an adult prisoner, were discovered by him throughout the journey, and provided him with the tenacity to move forward. 

Suggested Questions/Discussion Points:

1. How does the time period in which David lived make this a believable story?
2. Would the story have been set  in today’s world?
3. Was it environmental factors or genetics that effected David’s facial expression and eyes?
4. Reflect upon David’s impressions of the first home in which he was invited to enter. 
5. Is play a learned or a natural (innate) behavior? 
6. Conduct a survey on how the students think the story ended.  Did David and his mother immediately pick up life? Did they each have adjustment difficulties?  Why didn’t the author continue the story? Have the students continue the story either by telling or writing an ending.
7. Do a background search on the book, author, and the time period.
8. Research post World War II Labor Camps in Eastern Europe.

Follow Up:  In 2004, Lions Gate Films produced I Am David (rated PG).  If your school permits, the film could be shown after the book has been read.  Allow the students to compare and contrast the book and movie.  Why were certain aspects completely changed in the movie from the author’s depiction?   Which ending do the students prefer, the book or the film? Did the film cast mirror your mental image of the characters in the book?
Educational websites are available for the book and film.  Go to http://www.walden.com/walden/read/david/index.php and/or www.iamdavidmovie.com/.