Eighth Grade Literature by Unit
Text
“Tia Chucha” by Luis
Rodriguez
Publisher
Glencoe
(2000)
Synopsis
The narrator describes his admiration for his
aunt and her eccentric and whimsical
approach to life. (Metaphor).
“The Story Teller” by
Mark Van Dorenq
“The Fifty-First Dragon
by Heywood Broun
PH 2005
Poet extols the value of storytelling to
awaken the reader/listener’s imagination.
“The Monkey’s Paw” by
“The Rule of Names” by
Ursula K. LeGuin
Adventures
(1989)
Gawaine, a young, indifferent knight-intraining, attends special dragon-slaying
courses with his headmaster. When it is time
to slay real dragons, the headmaster arms
Gawaine with a battle axe and a magic word,
and Gawaine slays fifty dragons. However,
the headmaster makes the mistake of telling
the young knight that the magic word is
nothing but a confidence-booster, and, after
his encounter with the fifty first dragon,
nothing is left of Gawaine but his medals.
(Theme)
Adventures A family is given a magical monkey’s paw that
(1989),
grants its owner three wishes. The family
Ginn (1981) wishes for money and the next day they are
granted the exact sum they wished for as
compensation for their son’s death on the job.
The mother wishes for the son to come back
home alive and, when he hears knocking at
the front door, the father uses his final wish.
When the mother opens the front door, the
street is deserted. (Theme).
PH (2005)
On the island of Sattin, the superstitious
residents are surprised to find that their
resident magician, a fat, incompetent man
named Mr. Underhill, is actually the dragon
who has been wreaking havoc on the
townspeople.
Diversity
Hispanic
Genre
Form
Poem
poem
Fantasy
Short story
Fantasy
Short Story
Suspense
Fantasy
Short story
“The Colomber” by Dino
Buzzati
“The Scarlet Ibis” by
James Hurst
“A Mother in Mannville”
by Marjorie Kinnan
Rawlings
“A Retrieved
Reformation” by O.
Henry
“A Ribbon for Baldy” by
Jessie Stuart
“A Summer’s Reading”
by Bernard Malamud
“A Visit of Charity” by
Eudora Welty
Impact
(1996) Holt
Adventures
(1989),
Glencoe
(2000,
2009)
Adventures
(1989),
Ginn
The protagonist spends his whole life
being afraid of a sea creature who turns
out to be am benevolent spirit.
Regretting his actions towards his disabled
brother, a man reflects on the events leading
up to the tragic death of his brother years ago
when he was young. (Imagery; Figurative
Language; Characterization; Setting)
The narrator rents out a cabin on the property
of an orphanage in the Carolina mountains.
One of the orphans, Jerry, comes to help her
chop firewood and the two become close
friends. Jerry tells the narrator stories of his
mother, and how he is lucky that his mother
still sends him gifts from her home in Manville.
At the end of the story, as the narrator is
leaving the cabin, she learns that trustworthy
Jerry has been making up the story of his
mother all along.
PH (2005)
A reformed robber has to use his lockpicking
skills to rescue a young girl, which reveals his
identity. A policeman opts to believe in his
reform.
PH (2005)
A poor farm boy comes up with an idea for a
science project that brings acclaim to himself
and helps his family.
Adventures George, a young high school dropout in the
(1989)
Bronx, lies to the people in his neighborhood
about his ambition to read 100 books by the
end of the summer. When he is caught in his
lie, George is humbled and realizes that
perhaps he could benefit from such an
experiment. (Setting)
Ginn (1981) A seemingly apathetic young girl visits an oldfolks home to fulfill a service requirement for
girl scouts. The two elderly women she visits
Disability
Fantasy
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
“All the Years of Her
Life” by Morley
Callaghan
“An Episode of War”
Stephen Crane
“Before the End of
Summer” by Grant
Moss, Jr.
“Blues Ain’t No Mockin
Bird” by Toni Cade
Bambara
“Charles” by Shirley
Jackson
“Conquistador” by
Prudencio de Pereda
“Fool’s Paradise” by
harass and ridicule her and send her running
for the door. The inconclusive ending
describes the girl eating an apple on the bus.
(Characterization; Irony of the title) Great
discussions of the ending.
Adventures Alfred has been fired from yet another job for
(1989);
stealing, and his mother is forced to come to
Impact
his defense. When they arrive at home, and
(1996) Holt Alfred goes to thank his mother for her
strength, he gets a candid glimpse of the pain
she has been carrying her entire life.
(Character)
PH (2005)
In this surreal scene at a civil war battlefront,
a lieutenant is wounded by a stray bullet. The
story covers his treatment by his men and at
the hands of a surgeon.
Adventures Through the deaths of his grandmother and
(1989)
her friend, ten-year-old Bennie comes to learn
about and confront the ideas of death and his
own mortality. (Point of View)
Ginn
As the narrator plays with friends, Granny
(1981),
makes Christmas cakes on the back porch.
Glencoe
Two men making a film for the county begin
(2000,
filming without her permission. Granny asks
2009)
them to stop, but they don’t. Eventually the
men leave, but only after the narrator’s
grandfather uses a hammer to smash the
camera. (Character; Setting; Dialect)
PH (2005), Irony; A parent hears of what goes on in her
Elements
son’s kindergarten class from the
(2000) Holt; misbehaving boy.
Impact
(1996) Holt
Ginn (1981) A young Cuban American boy gets a new
view of how to decide what he might be when
he grows up. (Internal Conflict; Theme)
Ginn (1981) A young boy wishes to die and enter his idea
AfricanAmerican
Hispanic
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Isaac Bashevis Singer
of paradise. A clever doctor creates the
paradise for the boy without him knowing and
teaches the boy a valuable lesson: be careful
what you wish for. After enduring the paradise
for eight days, the boy is happy to realize the
truth that he is alive. (Irony; Characterization)
“Gentlemen of Rio en
PH (2005)
An older man sells land at an advantageous
Impact
Medio” by Juan Sedillo
price for the gringo purchaser. But tradition
(1996) Holt dictates the trees on the property planted for
his descendants’ births belong to them.
“Liberty” by Julia Alvarez Glencoe
A young girl has been hearing her parents talk
(2009)
about going to the United States. Her father
says he wants to go to school in the US.
Nothing seems to change until one day, with
little warning, the children are told they will be
leaving that very night. The girl sees her world
falling apart when she is told she must leave
her pet dog, Liberty, behind. (Conflict;
Character)
“Love is a Fallacy” by
Ginn (1981) Fads come in –and go out –with the times.
Max Shulman
“In” again at the time of this college story were
things like the Charleston and raccoon coats.
There is no logic to explain why, but logic is
certainly the key to what happens in this story.
(Irony)
“Mana Seda” by Fray
Adventures A brief history of Mana Seda, or “Sister Silk,”
Angelico Chavez
(1989)
and how she became a main attraction for
those making their pilgrimage to the mission
of El Tordo in New Mexico. (Setting)
“Marigolds” by Eugenia
Ginn (1981) In rural Maryland, a restless and poor
Collier
fourteen-year-old girl faces her own violent
and crazy behavior. Her reflection is the
beginning of maturity. (Dynamic
Characterization; Conflict)
“My Delicate Heart
Adventures While at summer camp, young Harriet
Condition” by Toni Cade (1989)
Watkins befriends a boy with a rheumatic
Bambara
heart. After hearing a camp counselor refer to
Hispanic
Fiction
Short story
Hispanic
Immigrants
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Hispanic
Fiction
Short Story
African
American
Fiction
Short Story
Disability
Fiction
Short Story
“Raymond”s Run” by
Toni Cade Bambara
“Ribbons” by Lawrence
Yip
“Rules of the Game” by
Amy Tan
PH (2005),
Elements
(2000) Holt
Holt
Glencoe
(2000,
2009)
“Smart Cookie” by
Sandra Cisneros
“Split Cherry Tree” by
Jesse Stuart
Holt
“Sweet Potato Pie” by
Eugenia Collier
Glencoe
(2000,
2009)
“Thank You, Ma’am” by
Langston Hughes
PH (2005);
Impact
(1996) Holt
Adventures
(1989)
the campers as “underprivileged,” Harriet
begins to wonder if and how she will be able
to ever outgrow her “underprivileged” heart.
(Point of view)
A young runner wins an annual race and
decides to coach her retarded brother.
Meimei is a Chinese-American girl growing up
in San Francisco’s Chinatown. She
experiences a number of cultural clashes with
her more traditional Chinese parents. These
cultural differences worsen the generational
gap between Meimei and her mother after
Meimei becomes a chess champion. (Setting;
Character)
Dave Sexton owes a debt to his
schoolteacher for climbing and splitting a local
farmer’s cherry tree. When Dave’s father, an
uneducated farmer, goes to confront
Professor Herbert about his son’s debt, he
gains a new respect for the educational
system he was never privileged enough to be
a part of. (Conflict, Dynamic Characterization,
Dialect)
Buddy was the youngest child of Southern
sharecroppers. Now a college professor,
Buddy drops in on his brother Charley’s family
in Harlem. He discovers that Charley, who
sacrificed for Buddy all his life, will continue to
do so forever. (Theme; Character)
A teenage would-be mugger is treated with
kindness and fed dinner by his motherly
intended victim. Good for characterization
Fiction
Short story
Asian
Fiction
Short story
Asian
Fiction
Short story
Hispanic
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
African
American
Fiction
Short story
African
American
Fiction
Short Story
“The Adventure of the
Speckled Band” by Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle
“The Balek Scales” by
Heinrich Boll
“The Cask of
Amontillado” by Edgar
Allan Poe
“The Circuit” by
Francisco Jimenez
“The Drummer Boy” by
Ray Bradbury
“The Eclipse” by Selma
Lagerlof
PH (2005)
Adventures
(1989)
Sherlock Holmes solves a two-year old
murder mystery and prevents another death.
In a small, rural village in Germany, the Balek
family presides over the villagers and pays
them for their work collecting various goods
from the woods. Although no one else in the
village is allowed to own scales other than the
Baleks, none of the villagers sense any
injustice until the day that young Franz
Brucher stumbles upon the injustice of the
scales firsthand. (Theme, Symbolism)
Adventures A deranged narrator secretly plots revenge on
(1989),
an unsuspecting wine connoisseur during
Glencoe
carnival. The narrator lures his victim deep
(2000,
into a catacomb beneath his palazzo by
2009), Ginn enticing him with the opportunity to sample
(1981)
amontillado, a fine wine. When they reach a
niche in the cellar wall, the narrator chains his
victim and fills the niche with bricks and
mortar. The crime has gone undetected for
fifty years. (Plot; Mood and Setting; Tone)
Elements
A poignant tale of a sensitive young boy from
(2000) Holt, an migrant worker family begins to fit in to a
Impact
school district just as it’s time for his family to
(1996) Holt move on.
PH (2005), A young drummer boy can’t sleep the night
Elements
before his first battle and has a chance
(2000) Holt conversation with a man he discovers to be
his general.
Adventures Beda, a farmer’s wife in a desolate region of
(1989)
Sweden, is the next of her friends to host the
much-anticipated coffee party ceremony.
Beda decides to host the party in celebration
of the next solar eclipse so that she and her
friends can give thanks to the sun for the
blessings they recognize in their lives amidst
Fiction
Mystery
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Suspense
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
the hardships. (Setting, Theme)
“The Gift of the Magi” by Glencoe
On Christmas Eve, a couple each make
O. Henry
(2000,
sacrifices to afford a gift for the other. They
2009),
then discover tat each has sold his or her
Adventures prized possession to give the other a gift that
(1989)
would enhance the now gone possession.
(Irony; Theme)
“The Interlopers” by Saki Glencoe
The Gadwitz and Znaeym families have been
(2009)
fighting over a piece of forestland for
Impact
generations. Ulrich von Gradwitz goes to the
(1996) Holt forest intent on catching Georg Znaeym
poaching on his game and then killing him.
When the two men meet, a tree falls on them.
The reconcile as they lie pinned beneath the
fallen tree, awaiting rescue. Later, they think
they glimpse a rescue party but instead
wolves appear. (Conflict; Theme; Irony; Mood)
“The Lady, or the
Glencoe
A semibarbaric king’s daughter is in love, but
Tiger?” by Frank R.
(2000,
her father does not like her young man and
Stockton
2009),
sentences him to the arena. There, he must
Adventures choose between a door with a tiger or a young
(1989),
lady whom he will instantly marry. Knowing
Ginn (1981) what lays behind which door, the now jealous
Impact
princess signals to her lover which door to
(1996) Holt choose. The question remains after the
inconclusively abrupt ending, into which door
did the princess send her lover? (Character;
Conflict) Great discussions about ending.
“The Leap” by Louise
Glencoe
The narrator is living in her childhood home
Erdrich
(2009)
with her blind, elderly grandmother. She
states that she owes her life to her mother
three times. She describes these three
occasions in the story. (Flashback; Setting)
“The Most Dangerous
Glencoe
A famous hunter, Rainsford, falls from a yacht
Game” by Richard
(2000,
in the Caribbean and swims ashore to a
Connell
2009),
secluded island. On the island, a strangely
Adventures sophisticated hunter, General Zaroff, has
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short story
(1989)
Impact
(1996) Holt
“The Musgrave Ritual”
by Sir Arthur Conan
Doyle
“The Necklace” by Guy
de Maupassant
“The New Mirror” Ann
Petry
“The Old Grandfather
and His Little Grandson”
by Leo Tolstoy
“The Open Window” by
Saki
“The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty”
been hunting shipwrecked sailors and
proposes a game to his new guest: If Zaroff
cannot find and kill Rainsford in three days, he
will transport him to the mainland. Upon the
final hour and after several failed attempts,
Rainsford outwits Zaroff and kills him.
(Setting; Mood; Character; Plot; Conflict;
Theme) Long story.
Adventures One of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories in
(1989)
which Holmes recalls one of his earliest
cases, in which he investigates the mysterious
17th century Musgrave Ritual. Holmes
eventually discovers that the Ritual was a
guide leading to King Charles I’s crown, being
kept for his successor. (Plot)
Glencoe
When a clerk’s wife who dreams of wealth
(2000,
and glamour is invited to a ball, she borrows a
2009),
diamond necklace from a rich friend. Her
Adventures social triumph turns into disaster when she
(1989)
loses the necklace. She and her husband
keep the loss a secret and borrow heavily to
buy an identical piece. After ten years of toil
and misery, they learn the borrowed jewels
were fake. (Irony; Point of View)
Ginn (1981) Springtime and a new mirror makes one take
African
a fresh look at things. Being the only African
American
American family in town, however, can
complicate a new venture.
PH (2005)
A young boy’s observation to the cruel
behavior of his parents towards their father
causes them to change their ways.
Ginn (1981) An easily frazzled man is told a ghost story of
Elements
a tragedy by a clever storyteller. When the
(2000) Holt story begins to appear reality, the man panics
and flees. (Irony; Mood; Surprise Ending)
Glencoe
Meek, ineffectual Walter Mitty has the world at
(2000,
his feet in his daydreams. He repeatedly drifts
Fiction
Mystery
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
2009)
“The White Umbrella”
by Gish Jen
PH (2005)
“Three Wise Guys” by
Sandra Cisneros
Elements
(2000) Holt
“The Treasure of Lemon
Brown” by Walter Dean
Myers
Elements
(2000) Holt
“Up the Slide” by Jack
London
PH (2005)
“War” by Jack London
Adventures
(1989)
into this fantasyland during a shopping outing
with his overbearing wife. However, the real
world keeps intruding, as his wife, a police
officer, a parking attendant, and even
passerby interrupt his daydreams with duties
he’d rather forget and remind him of mistakes
caused by his inattention. (Conflict; Tone)
Symbolism (white umbrella for American
culture) A young Chinese American
girl wrestles with her identity
and place as her mother begins
working and she is left late at
the piano teacher's house.
Troubled with guilt over the
acceptance of a gift and unkind
thoughts, she is immediately
brought back to life through a
small car crash where for an
instant she thinks her mother is
lost.
A gift of a set of encyclopedia seems like a
unwanted gift but turns out to be an awesome
education bonus for the young protagonist.
(irony)
A young boy happens to meet Lemon Brown,
a homeless, old African American, and comes
to a deeper understanding of what’s important
in life.
A seventeen-year-old underestimates the
difficulties he’ll encounter when he heads off
into the Yukon landscape in search of
firewood. His survival skills allow him to
succeed.
A young soldier in an unnamed war spares
the life of a soldier from the opposing army,
only to be killed by the same soldier the very
next day. (Situational Irony, Plot)
Asian
Fiction
Short story
Hispanic
Fiction
Short Story
AfricanAmerican
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short story
Fiction
Short Story
“What Stumped the Blue
Jays” by Mark Twain
A humorous tale about personified blue jays
Fiction
who try to solve the mystery of what happens
to the acorns one bird is dropping down a
hole.
Ginn (1981) A story told in second person; you are Ally
Visually
Fiction
and must go upstairs to the bathroom. This
Impaired
simple journey seems strangely difficult with
Protagonist
vivid descriptions of your surroundings. It is
never revealed, but implied, that you are blind.
(Point of View)
Short story
“Broken Chain” by Gary
Soto
Elements
(2000) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“A Smart Cookie” by
Sandra Cisneros
Elements
(2000) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“The Moustache” by
Robert Cormier
Elements
(2000) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“The Landlady” by Roald
Dahl
“The Inn of Lost Time”
by Lensey Namioka
“The Ransom of Red
Chief” by O. Henry
Elements
(2000) Holt
Elements
(2000) Holt
Elements
(2000) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
Fiction
Short Story
“The Sniper” by Liam
O’Flaherty
Impact
(1996) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“You Need To Go
Upstairs” by Rumer
Godden
PH (2005)
A 7th grader worries about his looks, his
clothes, his teeth, and especially his bike as
he embarks on his first date. Love blooms
around the neighborhood by the end of this
endearing story.
Esperanza's mama pushes her to use her
brain to become more than she herself is, a
cook.
A seventeen-year-old boy has a revealing
conversation with his foggy–brained
grandmother.
An eerie story of a boarding house who
guest never checks out. (suspense, irony)
A story of a hoax pulled on some travelers
that has a twist at the end.
Nothing works out the way the narrator
anticipates in this ironic tale of the
kidnapping of a young hellion. (comedy,
irony)
Two enemies in the Irish wars for
independence have a fatal showdown.
They turn out to have been brothers.
(irony, setting)
Hispanic
Asian
Short Story
“All the Years of Her
Life” by Morley
Callaghan
Impact
(1996) Holt
A mother acts to protect her troublemaking son when he gets himself in
trouble at work. (characterization, plot)
Fiction
Short Story
“A Secret for Two” by
Quentin Reynolds
Impact
(1996) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“The Emperor’s New
Clothes” by Hans
Christian Andersen
Impact
(1996) Holt
Fiction
Short Story
“A Nincompoop” by
Anton Chekov
Impact
(1996) Holt
An elderly milkman can’t survive the death
of his long-time companion, the horse that
pulls his milkwagon. (tone, characters,
irony)
A vain and foolish emperor is tricked by a
pair of lying con men into parading naked
in the streets of his city. (point of view,
theme, irony)
A powerless governess is deceived by her
boss who then takes pity on her. (explicit
theme, characters, point of view)
Fiction
Short Story
“The Struggle to be an
All-American Girl” by
Elizabeth Wong
Glencoe
(2009)
A girl and her brother of Chinese-American
descent must attend Chinese school. The girl
resists because she wants to be completely
American. As an adult, she understands that
her heritage is an important part of her.
(Character; Conflict)
Non
Fiction
Essay
“Project Blue Book” by
Editorial Staff, Time-Life
Books
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
This report gives a brief history of Project
Blue Book, a government task force
dedicated to verifying alleged UFO
sightings, and provides example
documents from several cases in the 50s
and 60s.
Sci-Fi
(Non
Fiction)
Government
Report
“The Secret” by Arthur
Clarke
PH (2005)
Sci-Fi
Short story
Sci-Fi
Short story
“Flowers for Algernon”
by Daniel Keyes
A journalist at a space colony on the moon
learns a secret about the longevity that comes
with living at the colony. He needs to decide
what to do with the information.
PH (2005), A retarded man relates his experiences when
Ginn (1981) he undergoes an operation to triple his
Elements
intelligence.
(2000) Holt
Asian
“He-y, Come on Ou-t!”
by Shinichi Hoshi
“The Portable
Phonograph” by Walter
Van Tilburg Clark
“The Rocket Man” by
Ray Bradbury
“The Sentinel” by Arthur
C. Clarke
“There Will Come Soft
Rains” by Ray Bradbury
“Robot Dreams” by
Isaac Asimov
Glencoe
(2000,
2009)
In the aftermath of a typhoon, the people of a
small Japanese village discover a mysterious
hole at the site of a destroyed shrine. The
hole seems endlessly deep, and the people
decide to use it for excessive waste disposal.
The story’s ending implies that everything will
soon erupt from the hole. (Theme; Abrupt
Ending)
Adventures A small group of people who have survived a
(1989)
terrible war now lives in a landscape scarred
by bombs and tanks and have scarcely any
shelter from the elements. And yet, the men in
the story are not concerned with food or
shelter, but instead are afraid of losing the few
great literary and musical works of civilization
that they have managed to salvage. (Setting)
Ginn (1981) An astronaut’s son and wife cope with his
constant absence to the stars. Talking with his
father, the son learns of the constant battle he
faces with yearning for the stars at home
while yearning for home while in space. The
father decides to uphold his duty and dies in
space, leaving his family alone and afraid of
the sun. (Theme; Tone; Mood)
Glencoe
An astronaut discovers an alien beacon on a
(2000,
cliff near a moon base. The mysterious
2009)
structure changes his ideas about the moon,
the human race, and the universe. (Setting;
Mood)
Elements
A futuristic story about a computer
(2000) Holt programmed house that continues to
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
function despite the fact that its four
residents are dead.
A robot, LVX-1, discusses a dream with
two robopsychologists. Since robots do
not dream, the doctors contemplate
terminating the newly aware machine.
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Learning
“The Choice” by W.
Hilton-Young
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
“The Helping Hand” by
Norman Spinrad
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
“What’s Alien You?” by
Dave Barry
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
When LVX-1 discloses its dream as being
about a man emancipating robots from
bound servitude, one doctor shoots the
robot in the head. (theme; conflict)
A man travels to the future and instantly
returns to present time without any
recollection of what happened. He tells his
friend the only thing he can remember was
the choice he was given either to remain in
that time or return without any knowledge.
The characters and the reader are left with
unsatisfied wonderment and intrigue. The
story is as short as this synopsis. (great
discussions)
Responding to an alien civilization’s
distress signal, countries of Earth unite to
send aid to a planet devastated by nuclear
war. Sacrificing everything and pushing
themselves to their financial and
technological limit, Earth sends an
expedition, who arrives to the planet years
later only to find the planet uninhabited.
The Earthlings discover that the voyage
was a test developed by the Interstellar
Brotherhood of Sentient Beings in order to
assess Earth’s worthiness and
righteousness. As a reward for their
selfless virtue, the Brotherhood offers to
help Earth’s now depleted world. This
story is told through a series of newspaper
clippings, a screenplay, and radio
transmissions. (Setting; Theme)
Connected with “Project Blue Book.”
Told in a juvenile persona, this satire first
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Short Story
Sci-Fi
Essay
Perfection
Learning
“In Communication with The Sci-Fi
a UFO” by Helen Chasin Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
“All Watched Over by
Machines of Loving
Grace” by Richard
Brautigan
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
“The Water Traders’
Dream” by Robert Preist
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
“Lose Now, Pay Later”
by Carol Farley
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
questions the validity of government
debunking UFO sightings. The article then
argues that American TV is awful because
aliens enjoy poorly-written soap operas
and will destroy the planet if we cancel
shows like “Dallas.” (Satire)
Connected with “What’s Alien You?”
and “Project Blue Book.” A poet yearns
to believe that we are not alone. An alien
responds. (Simile; Metaphor; Consonance;
Imagery)
A poet ponders a world where mammals
coexist with computers in a symbiotic
existence. (Simile; Theme)
Water traders from a far-away location
fantasize about a water-filled world known
as Earth. Water is so valuable and rare,
they say, yet earthlings just swim and
drink the water and do not realize how
valuable it really is. (Irony)
In 2041, a new dessert shop mysteriously
appears in a mall offering free food.
Everyone, including the narrator, begin
eating the dessert in excessive amounts.
In order to shed their newly acquired
weight, the narrator discovers a
convenient weight-vaporizing machine
Sci-Fi
Poem
Sci-Fi
Poem
Sci-Fi
Poem
Sci-Fi
Short Story
“The Star Beast” by
Nicholas Stuart Gray
The Sci-Fi
Factor
(2001)
Perfection
Learning
called “The Slimmer” nearby. Now
everyone can eat the dessert all day and
instantly lose the weight without any
consequences. Or can they? (Inconclusive
ending; Theme; Setting)
A monkey-like humanoid crashes onto
Earth. Everyone speculates the creature’s
origins and conclude that it is a primitive
beast. Eventually, the beast learns the
language and starts to tell the people
about his superior intellect and culture.
The people dismiss the creature and
assume its communication is parrot-like
mimicry. The people grow tired of the
creature’s attempts to explain itself and
send the beast to the circus. Throughout
the story, the beast tries to explain that
he is a man from his planet, and the
concept of man is a theme which could
be connected to Frankenstein. In the
end, the creature is so belittled and
ignored, it escapes and flees to the woods,
sadly attempting to be the beast it has
been convinced it is. (Character; Theme;
Conflict)
Sci-Fi
Short Story