Team Info:

• McDougle Elementary School
• Lisa Myles
• Allison, Will, Shanti, Elly, and Mimi

Summary of Novel:

When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead

When You Reach Me is a mystery novel about Miranda and her journey through seventh grade. Obstacles that Miranda faces are losing friends, mysterious letters, the laughing man on the corner, the guy who runs around naked, and the worries in her house. Miranda has to find new friends, deal with a kid named Marcus who stole her best friend by punching him, and Julia, an annoying, rude, and disrespectful wealthy girl who treats Miranda poorly.  She helps her mother win a t.v. show and all the while having to face the mystery of random letters that keep getting sent to her. Miranda meets Annmarie, who becomes her new friend. Towards the end of the story, Miranda finds out that Marcus is in trouble and has to figure out how to save him. She figures out that the laughing man, Marcus, and the naked man all are the same person trying to save Sal from a car accident. Soon Miranda realizes that sometimes you don’t know something is important until it is gone. This book is about trying to find your way in the world.

Hoot by Jerry Spinelli

Hoot is a realistic fiction book written by Carl Hiaasen.  Roy is a 6th grade boy who lives a normal life, except for his exceptional amount of moving houses. He is brave, curious, often willing to help and most of all, a social activist.

When Roy moved to Coconut Cove, Florida, his life changed. He saw a barefoot boy running outside the bus window while a 7th grade bully, Dana Matherson was smashing his face to the window. Later, he chased the barefooted boy and found out he was living in the woods with the nickname Mullet Fingers (Mullet Fingers told no one his real name). Roy later met a girl named Beatrice who stood up to Dana. She became Roy’s friend. After bonding, Roy found out that Mullet Fingers was Beatrice’s step brother.  Mullet Fingers had run away from home because his parents fought and his mother bullied him.

After Roy got to know Mullet Fingers, he started to help him solve the problem of the burrowing owls. The Mother Paula Pancake House was building a pancake house over the owl dens. Mullet Fingers wanted to stop them so Roy and Beatrice decided to help him.  After trying to stop the building overnight, Mullet Fingers got seriously injured. Roy knew there would be consequences but he gave Mullet Fingers his name so that he could be treated in the hospital without revealing his real name. After Mullet Fingers ran from the hospital it was discovered that he was really not Roy.  

Roy had a conversation with his mom after she found out that he tried to help Mullet Fingers.  Roy’s mom told him, “Honey, sometimes you’re going to be faced with situations where the line isn’t clear between what’s right and what’s wrong. Your heart will tell you to do one thing, and your brain will tell you to do something different.”  

At the end of the story, Roy used his heart and brain to save the burrowing owls.  He had to stand up for what he believed in and be brave in order to help them. Roy came up with an idea to protest the building of the pancake house.  He got lots and lots of people to participate until the building of the pancake house was canceled and the owls were saved.

For Challenge 2, we wrote and created a movie called “The Library Shutdown”.  Our movie was inspired by the government shutdown in January. In the movie, Roy from Hoot and Miranda from When You Reach Me, work together to organize a peaceful protest in support of reopening their school library.  In the novel Hoot, Roy works with his friends Mullet Fingers and Beatrice to save the dens of burrowing owls from being destroyed by construction.  Roy leads a peaceful protest at the construction site. He is seen as a social activist and someone who sticks up for his friends and for what he believes in.  Miranda, from the story When You Reach Me, is a problem solver.  She helps her mother win a game show and figures out who is sending her mysterious letters.  At the end of both novels, Roy and Miranda are happy with who they are and for what they’ve done to help their friends and family.  Mr. Smith, our real school librarian, plays the part of the librarian. Yes, he always wears funny hats and occasionally carries around his stuffed DoDo Bird.  We included characters from both of the books in our movie. Mullet Fingers and Beatrice (from Hoot) suggest the protest to Roy and Marcus, Julia and AnneMarie (from When You Reach Me) participate in the protest to open up the library.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TXPgGsuGZo    –    Library Shut Down