Where the Red Fern Grows
by: Wilson Rawls
Billy, Old Dan and Little Ann - a Boy and His Two Dogs...
A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains - and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. And close by was the strange and wonderful power that's only found...
Where The Red Fern Grows.
An exciting tale of love and adventure you'll never forget. (back cover)
A loving threesome, they ranged the dark hills and river bottoms of Cherokee country. Old Dan had the brawn, Little Ann had the brains - and Billy had the will to train them to be the finest hunting team in the valley. Glory and victory were coming to them, but sadness waited too. And close by was the strange and wonderful power that's only found...
Where The Red Fern Grows.
An exciting tale of love and adventure you'll never forget. (back cover)
Assignments
- Characterization worksheet
- Flashback worksheet
- Reading questions
(RF) Vocabulary List 1
- begrudgingly (adv) 9. mortal (adj)
- cur (n) 10. mull (v)
- destine (v) 11. predatory (adj)
- droning (adj) 12. scourge (n)
- flinty (adj) 13. sidle (v)
- grit (n) 14. slough (n)
- leering (v) 15. smirk (v)
- lithe (adj) 16. wily (adj)
(RF) Vocabulary List 2
- abounded (v) 9. dumbfounded (adj)
- clambered (v) 10. eternity (n)
- commotion (n) 11. gouge (v)
- designated (v) 12. impulsively (adv)
- desperation (n) 13. jarred (v)
- disposition (n) 14. mischievous (adj)
- drastic (adj) 15. protruding (v)
- predicament (n) 16. wallowing (v)
Hatchet
by Gary Paulsen
Alone
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present - and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents' divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair - it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive. (back cover)
Thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson is on his way to visit his father when the single-engine plane in which he is flying crashes. Suddenly, Brian finds himself alone in the Canadian wilderness with nothing but a tattered Windbreaker and the hatchet his mother gave him as a present - and the dreadful secret that has been tearing him apart since his parents' divorce. But now Brian has no time for anger, self-pity, or despair - it will take all his know-how and determination, and more courage than he knew he possessed, to survive. (back cover)
Assignments
- Discussion Questions
- Reading Questions
- Hatchet Project
(Hatchet) Vocabulary List 1
- abated (v) 9. seeping (adj)
- asset (n) 10. spasm (n)
- exasperation (n) 11. spiraling (adj)
- frantic (adj) 12. staggering (adj)
- keening (adj) 13. tendrils (n)
- massively (adv) 14. turbulence (n)
- precious (adj) 15. wrenching (v)
- pulverized (v)
(Hatchet) Vocabulary List 2
- accurately (adv) 9. instinctive (adj)
- antiseptic (adj) 10. lunged (v)
- crude (adj) 11. prong (n)
- exulted (v) 12. stable (adj)
- flailing (v) 13. stymied (v)
- furor (n) 14. unduly (adv)
- hefted (v) 15. unwittingly (adv)
- infuriating (adj)
(Hatchet) Vocabulary List 3
- abrupt (adj) 9. gratify (v)
- amphibious (adj) 10. propel (v)
- audible (adj) 11. rectify (v)
- corrosive (adj) 12. remnants (n)
- dormant (adj) 13. sear (v)
- eddy (n) 14. ultimately (adv)
- extensive (adj) 15. viciously (adv)
- gnarled (v)
(Hatchet) Vocabulary List 4
- consuming (adj) 9. lashed (v)
- diminish (v) 10. painstaking (adj)
- ignite (v) 11. partially (adv)
- incessant (adj) 12. rasping (adj)
- incredibly (adv) 13. rigid (adj)
- initial (adj) 14. rivulets (n)
- intense (adj) 15. twinge (n)
- intervals (n)
Holes
by Louis Sachar
Stanley Yelnats is under a curse. A curse that began with his no-good-dirty-rotten-pig-stealing great-great-grandfather and has since followed generations of Yelnatses. Now Stanley has been unjustly sent to a boys' detention center, Camp Green Lake, where the boys build character by spending all day, every day, digging holes exactly five feet wide and five feet deep. There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. But there are an awful lot of holes.
But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment - and redemption. (back cover)
But what could be buried under a dried-up lake? Stanley tries to dig up the truth in this inventive and darkly humorous tale of crime and punishment - and redemption. (back cover)
Assignments
- Webquest
- Setting worksheet
- Reading Questions
- Holes Project
(Holes) Vocabulary List 1
- wasteland (n) 9. torment (n)
- hovers (v) 10. retrieved (v)
- stifling (adj) 11. humiliating (adj)
- ratio (n) 12. despicable (adj)
- descendants (n) 13. defective (adj)
- perseverance (n) 14. doomed (v)
- desolate (adj) 15. preposterous (adj)
- scarcity (n)
(Holes) Vocabulary List 2
- evaporated (v) 9. callused (adj)
- sprawled (v) 10. appreciate (v)
- stationery (n) 11. condemned (v)
- barren (adj) 12. dread (n)
- metallic (adj) 13. ingredient (n)
- engraved (v) 14. venom (n)
- suspect (v) 15. writhed (v)
- haze (n)
(Holes) Vocabulary List 3
- awkward (adj) 9. lopsided (adj)
- cautious (adj) 10. mirage (n)
- concoctions (n) 11. refuge (n)
- fabulous (adj) 12. requirements (n)
- feeble (adj) 13. spewed (v)
- grotesque (adj) 14. urge (n)
- investigation (n) 15. visible (adj)
- logical (adj)
(Holes) Vocabulary List 4
- adjacent (adj) 9. improve (v)
- comprehend (v) 10. inexplicable (adj)
- delayed (v) 11. parched (adj)
- delirious (adj) 12. precipice (n)
- exhausted (adj) 13. protected (v)
- fiery (adj) 14. protruding (v)
- fugitive (n) 15. ventilation (n)
- gully (n)
Tuck Everlasting
by Natalie Babbitt
A kidnapping, a murder, a jailbreak. If this were Winnie Foster's story only, it would be like any other great adventure: you would come to the end, with all resolved, and that would be that. But this is also the story of the Tuck family and therefore, though it has a beginning and a middle, it can never end.
The two stories cross near the village to Treegap during a handful of hot August days in the 1880's, days which are a curious mixture of violence and love, of anguish and tranquility. And when those days are over, young Winnie is left to make a fundamental choice. What she chooses at last is not what she might have chosen at first. For when you have known the Tucks as Winnie has, however briefly, you can never be quite the same again. (back cover)
The two stories cross near the village to Treegap during a handful of hot August days in the 1880's, days which are a curious mixture of violence and love, of anguish and tranquility. And when those days are over, young Winnie is left to make a fundamental choice. What she chooses at last is not what she might have chosen at first. For when you have known the Tucks as Winnie has, however briefly, you can never be quite the same again. (back cover)
Assignments
- Webquest
- Reading Questions
(TE) Vocabulary List 1
- arc (n) 9. melancholy (adj)
- axis (n) 10. primly (adv)
- contemplation (n) 11. rave (v)
- disheartened (adj) 12. recede (v)
- fragrant (adj) 13. rueful (adj)
- Helter-skelter (adj) 14. teeming (adj)
- immense (adj) 15. venture (n)
- implore (v)
(TE) Vocabulary List 2
- accomplice (n) 9. pitiless (adj)
- bridle (n) 10. ponderous (adj)
- ebb (v) 11. pry (v)
- elated (adj) 12. profoundly (adv)
- exertion (n) 13. reservoir (n)
- goggled (v) 14. soothing (adj)
- indefinitely (adv) 15. vigorous (adj)
- indomitable (adj)