I really liked how this book ended. Georgina thought that if she stole a dog that she would be able to get the money her family needed to get a new place to live. Georgina soon learned that the woman from whom she stole the dog did not have the money to pay the large reward she thought she would get. She also learned some valuable life lessons from a local vagrant. In the end she returned the dog and did not take a reward. Her family was also given the opportunity to move into the house of a woman connected to a colleague of her mother.
I think this book has some very valuable lessons for children. At first I was concerned that some of the topics would be difficult for children to understand but I believe with proper guidance from the teacher they would be able to understand the difficult content. I would use this in a classroom to discuss various social issues as well as behaviors such as doing the right thing. I also found several resources and teaching guides online that I could use to design lessons for my classroom.
What type of lessons do you feel that Georgina learned from Mookie? Didn't you find that relationship to be slightly confusing. Even though he kept quiet on the issue of finding the dog collar and not mentioning it to Georgina. Didn't he fuel her dishonesty by not asking about why she found the dog collar? I just thought that even though she attributes her lesson from Mookie, but he didn't do that much. Those are just my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteHow did you feel about the fact that her family got to move into a house at the end of the book? On the one hand, I was glad to see the character move into a more stable place. On the other hand, I wondered if that would diminish the book's value to real-life homeless students.
ReplyDeleteI agree that students would get more out of this book in a guided lesson than if they read it on their own. As teachers, we can steer them towards the uncomfortable questions or themes they might not have noticed.
I agree with Shannon about the ending and how the happy ending may have been unrealistic in terms of the realities of homelessness.
ReplyDeleteSamantha, what topics did you think would be too difficult for students to understand? How would you as a teacher guide students to a more clear understanding?