1. Author Notes Novel Facts Book Interview
Introducing A Novel
Author Notes
Novel Facts
Book Interview
How do we interview books? 1

2. The Book Interview Front Cover / Back Cover Images About the Author
What does the title imply about the story?
What else do you notice about the cover?
Read the back cover blurb. What stands out to you? Why?
Images
What images do you see?
What do they tell you about the story? Author?
About the Author
What facts about the author will influence the book? Explain.
Random Page
What did you read? What is happening?

3. Birmingham Civil Rights Institute
Scholastic Timeline 3 3

4. 1963 - Alabama May June 12 Aug. 28 Sept. 15
During civil rights protests in Birmingham, Ala., Commissioner of Public Safety Eugene "Bull" Connor uses fire hoses and police dogs on black demonstrators. These images of brutality, which are televised and published widely, are instrumental in gaining sympathy for the civil rights movement around the world.
June 12
(Jackson, Miss.) Mississippi's NAACP field secretary, 37-year-old Medgar Evers, is murdered outside his home. Byron De La Beckwith is tried twice in 1964, both trials resulting in hung juries. Thirty years later he is convicted for murdering Evers.
Aug. 28
(Washington, D.C.) About 200,000 people join the March on Washington. Congregating at the Lincoln Memorial, participants listen as Martin Luther King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.
Sept. 15
(Birmingham, Ala.) Four young girls (Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, and Addie Mae Collins) attending Sunday school are killed when a bomb explodes at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, a popular location for civil rights meetings. Riots erupt in Birmingham, leading to the deaths of two more black youths.

5. Watsons Go to Birmingham
Literary Devices

6. Setting
The setting of a novel refers to the time and place the events occur.
What is the setting of our novel?
The setting of Flint, Michigan

7. Hook
An interesting first sentence or paragraph in a novel that grabs the reader’s attention.
Reread the first paragraph. How does this hook draw you into the novel?

8. Point of view Point of view refers to the person telling the story.
What Point of View is “Watsons” told?
First Person Point of View.
We are learning about the events as Kenny experiences them.
“I”, “My”, “We”…

9. Figurative Language COMPARISONS:
Simile - comparison using “ like or as”
Metaphor - implied comparison in which one thing is called another.
Hyperbole – comparison using exaggeration.
Find 2 Examples on Page 1

10. Cliffhanger
A cliffhanger – a moment of heightened suspense or tension. Encourages the reader to continue reading.

11. Foreshadowing
Foreshadowing refers to clues an author gives to suggest what may happen later in the novel.
What do you think might be foreshadowed by Mr. Robert’s story about saving his dog from drowning?

12. Mood
Mood is a feeling an author creates through carefully chosen words and phrases, settings, and events.
Reread Chapter Fourteen. Where does the mood change?
Why was a change of mood necessary at this point in the novel?

13. Conflict
Conflict, or the clash of opposing forces, takes many forms in literature and often provides the excitement in a novel.
Types of conflict:
Person vs. Person
Person vs. Nature
Person vs. Self