"Good Conversation!" A Talk with Clare Vanderpool
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Clare Vanderpool
Teachers and students will fall in love with Abilene; a feisty, independent, curious and determined 12-year-old girl. Clare Vanderpool weaves both fiction and fact into “Moon Over Manifest” and students learn about life in America in a small mining town during both WWI and the depression years.
- 22 minutes
Questions for classroom discussion and assignments:
- Times change, expressions change. Take some of Abilene's similes, alliterations and metaphors and rewrite them using expressions that are used today.
- Using a map of the world, tag your student's name and where their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents emigrated from. Have the students write any information they can gather from oral histories of their families.
- Abilene says, "memories were like sunshine. They warned you up and left a pleasant glow, but you couldn't hold on to them.” Write about some of your favorite memories.
- Abilene says, "seems like everyone in town has a story to tell." What is your story? It can be real or fictional.
- According to Adeline "kids are universal." She talks about grouping people with similar traits. What do you think? What type of “universal” are you?
- Bonus class discussion questions and writing activity: Reflect on how Abilene felt being sent away from her father. What emotions did she feel? How would you feel?