Literature Circle
NAME: Katie Thomas
Part 1 – Mini Discussion Director
Create 4 discussion questions about this section of the book. Remember to avoid questions
that can be answered with one word. You want your questions to cause a lot of talking.
1. If the Catanzes still wanted to keep David, they why did he have to leave?
2. Why is it so common for foster children to move so much?
3. How old is David’s brother, Russell?
4. Did Russell set it up so that when David came back to the school, his mother was
there?
Part 2 – Mini Literary Luminary
For this section, you are to pick out two passages that you want to share and explain why
you chose them. You might choose a passage because it is interesting, important or shows a
theme. Make sure to include the page number so it is easy for your partner to find.
1. “Minutes later, I stole a moment of time to take a final look at the room I had
slept, cried, played and spent so much time thinking in for just over a year.” (page
220)
Why? Because it shows how attached David was to the Catanzes’s house.
2. “I didn’t care. I didn’t care whether I slept on a couch or a bed of nails. I just
wanted to stay at a place that I could call home.” (page 252)
Why? Because David is so desperate to find a foster home that feels like, and that he can
call, home.
Part 3 – Mini Character Captain
Find two examples of characterization. This can be indirect characterization when the
author implies something about the character or direct characterization when the author
tells you about a character. Make sure to include the page number.
Character: Trait
Passage for support
1. David is loving.
“I wanted so badly to hug Russell.” (page 240)
2. Jody is fun.
“I shrugged off whatever anxiety I had after meeting Jody, Vera’s
husband, who chuckled like Santa Claus as he hoisted me so high
that my head almost struck the ceiling.” (page 238)
Part 4 – Summary
Write a summary explaining what happened in this section of your book.
In this section of the book, David is forced to move out of the Catanzes‘s house. He ends
up being placed in many different foster homes; none of them as good as Lilian and Rudy’s,
but even though David misses them, he still accepts his new foster families and keeps and
open mind. The newest foster home David is sent to is only a mile from his mother’s house
and because of this he ends up running into her. He thought she was coming at him with a
knife, but it was only her keys and David was safe. In the end, David is sent to yet another
foster home; but probably not his last.
Part 5 – Mini Connector
In this section, you will connect the book to one thing in your life or the world and make
one literary connection (simile, setting, theme, dialogue etc)
Text to self/world – This part of the book reminds me of the movie “Gridiron Gang” where
all of the kids are in juvenile hall.
Text – language – The part where David is running from his mother because he thought she
had a knife was extremely well written. You could really feel David’s fear while you were
reading it and it was very intense. (page 245)
Part 6 – Reading Strategies
Find a passage in your selection where you used a reading strategy. What strategy did you
use? What did you think at first and how did the strategy change your thinking?
“The paragraph at the end of page 245 and the beginning of page 246.”
When I first read this paragraph I got confused with what was happening, so I used the
reading strategy “if you don’t understand something, then re-read it”. Once I read it a
second time, I understood that he got hit by a car and almost got run over but he was scared
that his mother was coming for him so he got up from the accident and ran away.