hello library!

As my group gets older, I get to pick some longer, more complex novels (like Bone last month, and now Sammy Keyes). This is a lot of fun for me, as a would’ve-been English teacher. I think it’s fun for them, too. Challenge is good for us!

Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief, by Wendelin van Draanen

Discussion Questions

1. Who did you think the bad guy was? What clues were there along the way that led you to believe that person had committed the crimes?

2. Did you solve the mystery before Sammy did? Do you like mysteries that are easier to figure out yourself, or do you like surprising endings to mystery stories?

3. What do you think about Sammy’s family situation? What do you think about her mother’s leaving to pursue her own dreams? What about the apartment building she lives in with her grandma?

4. For the most part, the kids in this book do things on their own. Many of the adults treat Sammy as an annoying kid and don’t believe her even when she does try to get help. Was Sammy right to continue working on her own, or should she have tried to find an adult who believed her? What could she have done differently to make Officer Borsch take her seriously?

5. Sammy and Marissa come from very different backgrounds, and both envy the other: Marissa has lots of material things, but Sammy has a grandmother who loves her very much. Which do you think is more important? How do they deal with these differences and stay best friends?

Activity
Solving a mystery from the publisher of Sammy Keyes.

Bone: Out from Boneville, by Jeff Smith

Discussion Questions

1. Have you ever been far away from home or lost before, and not sure how you would get back home? How did it feel? What did you do?

2. The cousins are very loyal to each other – Fone Bone and Smiley Bone leave Boneville with Phoney, even though they are not the ones who are in trouble. Once they get separated, they spend a lot of time searching for each other. Would you leave your town with your siblings or cousins if they got kicked out, even if they’d done something wrong? What are the limits to this kind of loyalty?

3. Which of the Bone cousins did you like the best? How are they different from each other? What do they have in common?

4. Fone Bone makes a lot of friends in this book. Why do people get along with Fone Bone so well?

5. Does “Bone” remind you of any other stories you have read or seen?

6. How is reading “Bone” different from reading other kinds of books? Do you like the pictures? Do they help tell the story, or do they sometimes make it harder to figure out what is happening?

7. Because this is a comic book, we don’t get to find out what the characters are thinking. Do the pictures help us learn about the characters and their feelings? How?

8. What did you think about the ending? Do you have any ideas about what will happen in the next book?

Activities

Pick one…

1.Using a learn-to-draw book (or not!), draw your own pictures or comics, using whatever art materials are out on the table.

2.Pick a scene from the book, and try to write it out (or tell it to a friend) using only words. Is it hard to tell the story that way?

3.Think about what might happen next in the story, then write or draw a scene that you think could happen in the next book.

In case you were wondering…
from Wikipedia’s page on Moby Dick

Moby-Dick is a novel first published in 1851 by American author Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Very few whaleships know of Moby Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab’s boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge.