Directions
1. Put your name and block at the top of your
paper
2. Number your paper from 1 to 7
3. I will show you a book cover and read you a
summary of what happens in a book. Please
listen, and then write down the title of the book
and the genre that book belongs to.
Word bank
• Science fiction
• Non-fiction
• Realistic fiction
• mystery
• Poetry
• Fantasy
• Historical fiction
#1
Midnighters by Scott Westerfeld
A few nights after Jessica Day arrives in Bixby,
Oklahoma, she wakes up at midnight to find the
entire world frozen, except for her and a few
others who call themselves midnighters. Dark
monsters haunt this magical midnight hour –
dark monsters with a mysterious interest in
Jessica. The question is, why?
The Secret Hour is a compelling tale of dark
secrets, eerie creatures, courage, destiny, and
unexpected peril.
(amazon.com)
#2
Looking for Alaska by John
Green
Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his
safe life at home. His whole life has been one
big non-event, and his obsession with famous
last words has only made him crave “the Great
Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet).
He heads off to the sometimes crazy and
anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek
Boarding School, and his life becomes the
opposite of safe. Because down the hall is
Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, selfdestructive, and utterly fascinating Alaska
Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls
Pudge into her world, launches him into the
Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .
After. Nothing is ever the same.
(amazon.com)
#3
The Invention of Hugo Cabret by
Brian Selznick
Orphan, clock keeper, and thief, Hugo lives in
the walls of a busy Paris train station, where his
survival depends on secrets and anonymity. But
when his world suddenly interlocks with an
eccentric, bookish girl and a bitter old man who
runs a toy booth in the station, Hugo's
undercover life, and his most precious secret,
are put in jeopardy. A cryptic drawing, a
treasured notebook, a stolen key, a mechanical
man, and a hidden message from Hugo's dead
father form the backbone of this intricate,
tender, and spellbinding story.
(amazon.com)
#4
Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
Fever 1793 is based on an actual epidemic of yellow
fever in Philadelphia that wiped out 5,000 people--or 10
percent of the city's population--in three months.
In the foreground of this story is 16-year-old Mattie
Cook, whose mother and grandfather own a popular
coffee house on High Street. Mattie's comfortable and
interesting life is shattered by the epidemic, as her
mother is felled and the girl and her grandfather must
flee for their lives. Later, after much hardship and terror,
they return to the deserted town to find their former
cook, a freed slave, working with the African Free
Society, an actual group who undertook to visit and
assist the sick and saved many lives. As first frost arrives
and the epidemic ends, Mattie's sufferings have changed
her from a willful child to a strong, capable young
woman able to manage her family's business on her own.
(amazon.com)
#5
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
by Phillip Hoose
On March 2, 1955, an impassioned teenager, fed up with the
daily injustices of Jim Crow segregation, refused to give her seat
to a white woman on a segregated bus in Montgomery,
Alabama. Instead of being celebrated as Rosa Parks would be
just nine months later, fifteen-year-old Claudette Colvin found
herself shunned by her classmates and dismissed by community
leaders. Undaunted, a year later she dared to challenge
segregation again as a key plaintiff in Browder v. Gayle, the
landmark case that struck down the segregation laws of
Montgomery and swept away the legal underpinnings of the Jim
Crow South.
Based on extensive interviews with Claudette Colvin and many
others, Phillip Hoose presents the first in-depth account of an
important yet largely unknown civil rights figure, skillfully
weaving her dramatic story into the fabric of the historic
Montgomery bus boycott and court case that would change the
course of American history.
(amazon.com)
#6
Make Lemonade by Virginia
Euwer Wolff
Viginia Euwer Wolff's groundbreaking novel,
written in free verse, tells the story of fourteenyear-old LaVaughn, who is determined to go to
college--she just needs the money to get there.
When she answers a babysitting ad, LaVaughn
meets Jolly, a seventeen-year-old single mother
with two kids by different fathers. As she helps
Jolly make lemonade out of the lemons her life
has given her, LaVaughn learns some lessons
outside the classroom.
(amazon.com)
#7
Feed by M. T. Anderson
For Titus and his friends, it started out like any
ordinary trip to the moon - a chance to party
during spring break and play with some stupid
low-grav at the Ricochet Lounge. But that was
before the crazy hacker caused all their feeds to
malfunction, sending them to the hospital to lie
around with nothing inside their heads for days.
And it was before Titus met Violet, a beautiful,
brainy teenage girl who has decided to fight the
feed and its omnipresent ability to categorize
human thoughts and desires.
(amazon.com)
Wait! Think about this!
Remember, we learned there are 7 MAIN genres of literature. I told you which we
would focus on.
For today’s formative, you should have used all 7 of those genres as an answer. You
should have used each one only once. If you have any doubles or you have made up a
genre you should go back for a second and rethink your answer.
The books we used were:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Midnighters
Looking for Alaska
The Invention of Hugo Cabret
Fever 1793
Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
Make Lemonade
Feed
Make sure you wrote down the title and
genre. That was part of the directions!
Answer key
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Fantasy
Realistic Fiction
Mystery
Historical Fiction
Non-Fiction
Poetry
Science Fiction