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Reading Assignment: Please read the first 39 pages of Dear Mr. Henshaw

 

 

Writing Assignment:  Write a paragraph or two describing Shirley’s character using at least two different adjectives. For each adjective you introduce, cite (mention) an event from the book and provide a quote that illustrates those adjectives.  Please also  identify where in the book the event or quote occurs. In other words, put a page number after the description or quotation. 

 

While the assignment has three parts: (1) the adjectives (2) the event in the book and (3) the quotation, you don't have to do two and three in that order. You can put the quote first and the event second. Or you can write about the event and then provide the quote. 

 

See example below.

 

For instance, if I were describing Shirley’s mom for this assignment, I would do it like this:

 

Example 1:

In the novel In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, the author Bette Bao Lord makes Shirley’s mother a character with two very different faces. She is both timid andbrave. (The adjectives)  As Shirley says of her mother, “It was so like Mother to tame a den of tigers and then jump at the sound of a kitten’s meow.” (This is what I mean about using a quotation from the book to make your point).

 

(Here's the incident from the book.) Thus it’s not surprising that Shirley’s mother is fearless when she has to deliver a baby.  She does it calmly and without fear (22).  (This is what I mean by saying use an incident or event from the book to make your point) But when the lights go out and the fuses need to be replaced, Shirley’s mother is afraid to do it by herself (112). (Numbers in parentheses () indicate where in the book this happens)

 

I will send Example 2 via e-mail.

 

Last edited by Laraine
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    In the novel In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, the author Bette Bao Lord makes Shirley Temple Wong a character with two very different faces. She is both shy and self-confident. When she first arrived in America, she can go buy things for her father in this stange land alone(although her lost the way at last), so she is self-confident.

    But when she was into her new class in America and face her new teacher and new classmate she is shy. She speak less and do not do anything with out her teachers and parents tell her to do. But she became self-confident because she is learning more and more English, she could speak to her American friends well and they could understand her. So she is shy at first but I think that's only because she is new to the class and she couldn't speak English well at first.

In the Bette Bao Lord’s In the Year of Boar and Jackie Robinson, there is a character call Shirley Temple Wong. She is a proud and outgoing girl. Sometime have a little feudal. She is proud because when she arrive a new land (the USA), she just go out with herself. If I go to a new land, I will never do like that. She is outgoing too. She just goes to school and try to make friend with her classmates, even she don’t know how to speak English well. The last is feudal. When Emily let Shirley to read those books about human’s body, she thinks those books are “Yuck”. You know the old China is really feudal; they didn’t let girls to study, they didn’t tell girls about something in human’s body, and they won’t say this in chitchat, because they think those things are sick and not good. So Shirley is born in a really feudal place, so she hates those books.

@Mark, Wow, this is quite a step up. I am very impressed. Except for the quotations and the page numbers, you got it exactly right

 

. Wonderful writing here with sentences flowing into one another as smoothly as maple syrup into oatmeal (simile or metaphor?) I'll send some additional comments via e-mail. Well done Mark. You never fail to impress.   See you on Thursday.  LMF

@ Cindy, What an interesting response! I had not even thought about the source of Shirley's  feelings about the chart. But you really drew my attention to the fact that Shirley's back ground is more feudal than modern. Wonderfully original insight, one I agree with completely.

 

 You also did very well citing (mentioning incidents in the novel) events from the book to back up what you say. That's the way to write about literature in a convincing way.

 

 The only things missing are the page numbers and quotations. But I  am sure they will be there the next time. Great Work, Cindy! I am really impressed with the thinking here.I'll send you some additional comments via e-mail. See you on Thursday.  LMF

  Hello,Laraine

      In the novel In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson, the author Bette Bao Lord makes Shirley’s charcter is brave and kind.

     Shirley is brave.At the first day she got to American,she can go to buy things herself !She lose at last,but anyway,she is so brave! When his father want go to buy cigaretes together she only says:"please let me go by myself"

     Shirley is kind.When Mabel punched her hard,she didn't punch back.And when she backed to home,her mother asked her,she only says:"Nothing".She doesn't want to hurt Mabel.

Thatta girl, Enya! You even have the quotations backing up what you say. Wonderful! I am so pleased to see that.   And I agree with you. Shirley is both brave and kind, although I am not sure she wants to be kind to Mabel. However, that may be the reason she doesn't hit her back. I can't say with certainty that it isn't.

 

Very nice work. I am glad to see that you followed the directions almost exactly. The only thing missing are the page numbers for the quotations. Still, well done. I will send you some additional comments via e-mail. Looking forward to seeing you in class on Thursday.   Laraine

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