This humorous tale of a teenager in a small New Mexico town in 1944 illustrates one person’s encounters with class and race consciousness while growing up in a world at war.
Students participate in small-group work, creative writing, analytical writing, group work, analysis of tone, and poetry writing. They discuss tone of the novel and of several paintings, perform skits, compare settings, analyze the coming-of-age process, examine the role of women and the South in light of a Civil War poem, and compare two poems. The unit offers a variety of optional activities including listening to popular music of the 1940s, letter writing, and research writing. Study questions are included for the entire novel.
Supplementary materials feature essay topics and reading quizzes.
