The B Project (young adult literature and the secrets that lie within…)

“The B Project” Created By: Lauren George The B Project(young adult literatureand the secrets that lie within…) Lauren George English 486 Featuring Young Adult Literature…and the secrets that lie within….

Theme! For this project my theme involved “secrets” that are revealed throughout a story that shape or change a characters life for good or bad.” These stories keep the reader on the edge and using many reading strategies to figure out what is going to happen next in the story! All the books I selected for this project offer a new twist and turn to my theme but they all interlock in one way or another.

Silent to the Bone Branwell has gone silent and Conner, his best friend, wants to know why. Ever since Branwell’s baby half sister Nikki was in a terrible accident and now lays motionless in a coma Branwell has not spoken a word. He has been put to blame in a juvenile detention center for what has happened and Conner is determined to clear Bran’s name and find out the truth. Conner has to unravel many hidden family secrets and one big secret that Branwell knows but isn’t telling… The au pair or the pizza guy…who is telling the truth and who needs to…

Please Ignore Vera Dietz Vera has a lot of emotional “baggage” that she needs to set free. She holds secrets of her now dead best friend and a father who she loves but needs help to. She can’t escape Charlie’s haunting personality until she reveals what he wants her to about what really happened to him. Vera is a smart, witty and just all around great character who relates to many teens dealing with personal issues and the everyday jerks during high school. Her love of vocabulary, hate for her home town makes her story interesting and her alcoholic needs at such a young age only keep the reader on the edge. She holds many secrets that need told so she can be set free of everything that is holding her back in her life, she just needs that extra courage to do what she needs to do to be happy. The Pagoda…where good and bad memories were shared and secrets were made…

“…I missed him long before he was dead and that’s the bitch of it all.” “He lived hard because inside he was dieing. Charlie made inner conflict look delicious.” As the Zen guy says “If you want to drown, do not torture yourself with shallow water.” “I wanted to tell him everything, but Dietzes don’t do drama.” “I wasn’t trying to hurt Vera.” Get to understand Vera’s crazy life…. QUOTES from “PLEASE Ignore Vera Dietz” If were supposed to ignore everything that goes wrong in our lives, then I can’t see how we will ever make things right.” - Vera “Oh yes, I would kill to be a pickle on Vera’s Big Mac. Because Vera gave a shit. And she knew how to tell the truth.” “I just kept my mouth shut because I thought that made me safe.”

Hush What really happened that night on the beach… It was the summer before their senior year, Coby and her group of friends gathered around a campfire at her father’s beach house and shared their “darkest secrets” before a tragic accident shatters the bond between them. Twelve years pass when Coby attends a birthday party reunion at her father’s beach house, which brings back so many strange emotions for everyone especially when the event ends with another “accidental death” in the group. Soon others in their original group of friends begin meeting similar fates, more unfortunate accidents and shrinking the group one by one. Convicted by her growing feelings for her past boyfriend Danner, who has come back into her life since the reunion, Coby races to unravel the mystery that was buried in the past and Danner helps her along the way. But someone is watching her every move and ready to kill again to protect the hidden truth. This story is so intense and reveals more clues with every page you turn, changing the way the reader truly perceives each character in ever twist and turn it takes!

The Invention of Hugo Cabret(a graphic novel) Hugo is an orphan boy and thief living in the deep, dark walls of the train station in Paris. He works on the clocks all throughout the station which was a job he has been left with since he lost the only thing he had, his father. But Hugo has many secrets just waiting to be revealed and even secrets that he is determine to fix and find out. But his world will suddenly change when he meets a young girl named Isabel and a grumpy old man. Who takes his special notebook one day when he catches Hugo stealing from his toy shop, but Hugo isn’t stealing because he wants toys, he is stealing to fix the most magical piece of work that he has ever seen! And to keep his secrets from getting out to the wrong people, but his undercover life is put in jeopardy as the story unravels. The mechanical man and the hidden message must be revealed before it’s too late to know the truth. This story takes place in Paris in 1931 and is such a magical story for students and has magnificent illustrations throughout that keep the reader wanting more!

Movie / Book Trailers • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjSNBP4P9RU (Hugo) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwjqAqQ6g1I (Vera)

The Secret Sits “We dance around the ring and suppose, but the secret sits in the middle and knows” Robert Frost I love the simplicity of this poem. Since my theme is “Secrets” that are unraveled in the text this poem demonstrates what sort of actions a secret plays in a story and in real life. Everyone ignores the truth until there is that one person who realizes the truth and sets in free but until then it waits right in the middle. I think it helps students get a better understanding of what role a “secret” may play in the story.

My Secret Place When life's pressures invade my space, I escape to my secret place.No one knows where that might be, it's not on land, nor air or sea.My secret place is a wonderland, it holds no fears I understand, that nothing in the world can find me, here with my thoughts and dreams beside me.I wonder in a field of dreams, that feed my open mind it seems, with all the riches of success, the answers to questions I must address.Then swimming in a pool of thoughts, understanding past lost battles fought, I realize the strength in me, the courage, honor and dignity.I can reach most any goal, if I put in my heart and soul.Stand up against any man, this is who I really am.All this I have found in my secret place, where I am given so much space, when I am searching I might find, the rhyme and reason of any kind.My secret place, no one can find.That secret place lays in my mind.Kevin Moss **This poem is a great piece of work to support students understanding of another type of “secret”. A more personal and serene look at someone's secret and even their place in such a busy world. I think it is a great idea to help students find the joy that poetry can give and demonstrate that it doesn’t have to be as difficult as they may think it will be for them to decipher.

Rated PG http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0311289/

FILM - HOLES Stanley Yelnats is a typical teenage boy living with a very strange and unusual family. His family has been cursed with a bizarre problem. But when Stanley is convicted of a crime he did not commit and sent to a brutal detention summer camp, he learns more and more about his family then he ever thought he would. Camp Green Lake is no ordinary camp and Stanley learns this the hard way but finds out many hidden secrets on his journey. Such an exciting film for grades 5th and up!

Activities for students! I wonder how her best friend died? Pre Reading- Since my theme revolves around the secrets that are unraveled in the texts I think pre reading strategies are a great way to get the students involved before they jump in! Here is a short and easy activity to get your students thinking… Have the students ask “I wonder” questions before they read. Have them skim the text, make predictions from the cover page and even from the summary provided on the back of the book. As students do this they are getting a brief idea of what this story will really be about. Making predictions is a form of higher order thinking and will keep the students engaged. Have the students keep track of their predictions in their reading journals which I will get to next! I wonder what happened to baby Nikki? I wonder what really happened that night on the beach? I wonder why she is so angry at her best friend even though he is dead? I wonder why Hugo steals? Is he poor?

ReaderResponseJournals! Response journals - give the students an opportunity to free write about literature they are reading in and out of class. They are designed to let students express their feelings, questions, and even concerns about a book, article or any other sources that they enjoy reading. It is a reflective space for students to write and even share in class discussions. As I mentioned before with their “I wonder” questions, the students can write their predictions in their journals before they begin to read. They can also do a “double entry journal” and enter a quote from the book and their thoughts or questions on the right side of that. The students can choose to share their entries with the class or the teacher to have feedback and incorporate other ideas and thoughts to their own.

TeaParty! Lets have a Tea Party!! This activity can take place before and during reading. This is another great strategy to get students making predictions but with a few more helpful clues! Each student will receive a card that has a line, phrase or word on it from the text they are reading together. Students will then walk around interacting with one another comparing their cards until the class can put the phrase or “clue” together! This is a great activity to get kids thinking and working collaboratively on a piece of literature. This hopefully will also strike students interest in the book, urging them to want to read more!

Newscast! For this activity the students are going to be in the spotlight! Newscast requires the students, in groups, to produce a video and conduct an interview which they will video tape for the class to watch all together. They are going to be interviewing a character of their choice. Since my stories are all revealing secrets that are shocking and tantalizing the students get to choose a character from each book we do and conduct an interview. They will each have a role to play in their groups, as the film maker, an interviewer, and the character being interviewed. This is a great way for students to get creative and start to really think of character roles, how they are perceived in the book and how they will be perceived in real life. The students can ask questions that they may think could solve a mystery or personal information that the character is not telling yet in the book.

Story Quilt! The story quilt can be a during reading or a post reading activity. Students should identify a quote or quotation that seems to sum up the focus of a chapter(s) or the book (depends on how the teacher wants to pursue this activity). Every student will receive an individual square where they will write their quote and include a picture that may help “visualize” the quote. All the books related to my theme have an intense climax which keeps the reader on their toes. The students should look for quotes that make them question, wonder, visualize and feel what is going on in the story at these particular times. Once every student has created there square the class has to make it “a whole” or the quilt itself. This can be a tricky set up but it gets the students thinking of ways to display their quilt in the most meaningful and organized way possible that reflects the story.

THE END

The B Project (young adult literature and the secrets that lie within…)