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Monday, March 12, 2012. BR: What can we learn about a book by looking at its cover? Obj : Students will discuss pre-reading skills and distribute books HW: Begin reading Ch 1 and working on Ch 1 questions .
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Monday, March 12, 2012 BR:What can we learn about a book by looking at its cover? Obj: Students will discuss pre-reading skills and distribute books HW: Begin reading Ch 1 and working on Ch 1 questions
With a group of 3 other people, brainstorm a list of questions you have about each book cover. Who are these boys? Characters in the story?
Share out your answers • I will distribute books as we discuss
Which boy does the title refer to? • We cannot see their facial expressions. Are they happy or sad? • Where are they? • Why do they have numbers pinned to their pajamas? • Is one boy older than the other? • Are they brothers or friends? • Is this a posed photograph?
Do we associate the stripes with the word pajamas in the title? • Are the stripes on the cover anything to do with the ‘boy’? • Are they his pajamas? • The colour seems old fashioned: is this because the story is from the past? • The stripes seem a little dirty. Why?
To whom do the pajamas belong? • Why are there dirty smudges on the pajamas? • Who would neatly fold a pair of dirty pajamas? • What is the importance of the number on the pajamas? • What does the barbed wire in the background suggest?
What other information is also included on a book’s cover? • Does the author have a purpose in the words? • Why do you think the author chose the words he did?
Information on the cover • A book’s blurb is very important to a reader. When he or she takes it down from the shelf in the bookshop it’s what makes them decide to buy the book or not. When the novel was being prepared for publication I wrote the following blurb and sent it to my publisher: • John Boyne
When Bruno returns home from school one day, he is upset to discover that all his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion at work and the family has to move from their luxurious home to a new city, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. Worse still, the new house has a tall fence running alongside it that stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the children he can see in the distance on the other side. • But Bruno longs to be a great explorer like his heroes Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place and sets off one day to see how far the fence runs. And it is while exploring that he meets another little boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own.
The story in this book is very difficult to describe. Usually we give some clues about the book on the jacket, but in this case we think that would spoil the reading of the book. We think it is important that you start to read without knowing what it is about. • If you do start to read this book, you will go on a journey with a nine-year-old boy called Bruno. (Though this isn’t a book for nine-year-olds.) And sooner or later you will arrive with Bruno at a fence. • Fences like this exist all over the world. We hope you never have to encounter such a fence. • From the publisher of the novel
Whole Class Reading Let’s begin our reading of the novel.
Development • When and where is the book set? • How old is Bruno? • Where does he live, and with whom? • What impression do we get of Bruno?
