Ms. T's Class-Book Review Blog: The Dead and the Gone-Susan Beth Pfeffer

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

The Dead and the Gone-Susan Beth Pfeffer

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s book Life as We Knew It was one of my favorites last year. I have been counting down the days, waiting for this companion, The Dead and the Gone, to be published. This book takes place at the same time as LWKI’s devastating natural occurence, an asteroid slamming into and altering the moon’s orbit. This time the story focuses on a Puerto Rican family in New York City. Alex’s dad is in Puerto Rico and his mom is at work at a hospital when disaster strikes. I thought that Pfeffer’s portayal of what might occur in a big city was realistic. Rats would thrive on the bodies left on the streets. Citizens would resort to stealing items off those bodies in order to trade for food. Schools would do all they could to stay open and feed children lunches. I thought the book ended too early (spoiler alert). I was left wondering exactly what happened to Alex’s mother and father. What became of Alex and his sister when they did finally escape from New York. As we know from LWKI-things were tough all over. I was hoping they would stay, at least until Alex finally realized that he should gather supplies from all the deserted apartments in his building, not just the 2 he had keys to.

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Illinois Learning Standards Middle/Junior High School

Using available technology, students produce compositions and multimedia works for specified audiences.
Students summarize and make generalizations from content and relate them to the purpose of the material.
Students respond to literary material from personal, creative and critical points of view.
Students read age-appropriate material with fluency and accuracy.
Students produce documents that convey a clear understanding and interpretation of ideas and information and display focus, organization, elaboration and coherence.
Students interpret and analyze entire narrative text using story elements, point of view and theme.
Students edit and revise for word choice, organization, consistent point of view and transitions among paragraphs using contemporary technology and formats suitable for submission and/or publication.
Students continuously check and clarify for understanding (e.g., in addition to previous skills, draw comparisons to other readings).

NETS Learning Standards

NETS Standard 1.b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
NETS Standard 2.a. interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media.
NETS Standard 2.b. communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats.
NETS Standard 5.a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
NETS Standard 5.b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
NETS Standard 6. d. transfer current knowledge to learning of new technologies.
NETS Standard 6.a. understand and use technology systems.

Illinois Learning Standards Late Elementary

Students produce and format compositions for specified audiences using available technology.
Students edit documents for clarity, subjectivity, pronoun-antecedent agreement, adverb and adjective agreement and verb tense; proofread for spelling, capitalization and punctuation; and ensure that documents are formatted in final form for submission and/or publication.
Students establish central idea, organization, elaboration and unity in relation to purpose and audience.
Students generate and organize ideas using a variety of planning strategies (e.g., mapping, outlining, drafting).
Students write paragraphs that include a variety of sentence types; appropriate use of the eight parts of speech; and accurate spelling, capitalization and punctuation.
Students respond to literary material by making inferences, drawing conclusions and comparing it to their own experience, prior knowledge and other texts.
Students identify definitive features of literary forms (e.g., realistic fiction, historical fiction, fantasy, narrative, nonfiction, biography, plays, electronic literary forms).
Students identify literary elements and literary techniques (e.g., characterization, use of narration, use of dialogue) in a variety of literary works.
Students explain how authors and illustrators use text and art to express their ideas (e.g., points of view, design hues, metaphor).
Students summarize and make generalizations from content and relate to purpose of material.
Students make and support inferences and form interpretations about main themes and topics.
Students continuously check and clarify for understanding (e.g., in addition to previous skills, clarify terminology, seek additional information).
Students establish purposes for reading; survey materials; ask questions; make predictions; connect, clarify and extend ideas.