Step 1: Read the Book
This is is a truly amazing story. The main character, Valli, is incredibly strong and resourceful. I admire her because she takes risks to try and make a difference to her life. This story will make you laugh at times and it might even make you cry! It will certainly help us to better understand the life of the very poor and sick, living on the streets in India.
My advice would be to stop every 3 or 4 chapters and take some notes using the questions in step 2. This will help you organise the information about the book. If you take good notes and discuss them with others who have read the book, you will be well prepared for the Readers' Cup Competition.
My advice would be to stop every 3 or 4 chapters and take some notes using the questions in step 2. This will help you organise the information about the book. If you take good notes and discuss them with others who have read the book, you will be well prepared for the Readers' Cup Competition.
Step 2: Take some notes
Use the following questions to guide your note taking and the words in yellow could be your headings;
- Who is the main character/s?
- What other characters are in the story and what is their relationship to the main character/s?
- What are these characters like? Find words in the story that describe these characters and write them next to their name. For example in The Best Day of My Life: Elamma (Valli's cousin) - Unkind and mean. Would hit Valli and force her to work. She was the one who told Valli that she didn't really belong in their family.
- What is the setting? Where does the story take place? There may be more than one setting throughout a whole book, so choose the main ones. Try to write down some specific information. For example in The Best Day of My Life, some of the different settings were the mining town of Jharia, the streets of Kolkata and the hospital in Kolkata.
- What are the main events in the story? These are the things that happen. There will be several significant events in a whole novel. For example in The Best Day of My Life one of the main events was when Valli decided to leave the mining village and jumped on the back of the coal truck. It was significant because it was the first step in changing her life. He wasn't able to make a noise and draw attention to the suitcase.
- What are some things of interest? It might be the colour of something, a name or nickname given to something etc etc. For example in The Best Day of My Life Valli calls stealing, borrowing. She 'borrows' something for a while and then passes it on to someone else who needs it. Try to pick out the interesting bits of information that might make a good question for Readers' Cup Day!
Extra Information
Book Reviews - What other people think!
- My Book Corner
- Good Reads
- OLMC Library
Teaching Notes - Allen and Unwin