January 2012 Free Edition

Swamp

5 - Interview with Nick Waters6 - Building a Mystery8 - Where I’m From in the view of Nick

9 - Evaluating Scat

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Prologue

Scat is a book about a mystery of a teacher that dissapeared on a field trip to Black Vine Swamp. Everybody involved in the dissapearance knows a little piece of what's going on, but nobody knows the whole of what's going on.

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Table of Contents

5 Interview with Nick Waters

6-7 Building a Mystery

8 Poem

9-11 Scat Evaluation

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Nick Waters, 2003

Until recently, Nick Waters has been living a very normal life in Florida. However, his father has gone to war in Iraq and Nick is getting worried because he hasn't been getting emails from him recently. This is not his only problem, when on a field trip to Black Vine Swamp there was a mysterious fire and the class had to evacuate. However, Nick's teacher went back into the dark, marshy, murky swamp and disappeared. Everyone involved with the fire and disappearance knows a piece of what transpired on that fateful day, but nobody knows the complete story of what is going on.

Bio

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Questions:

Q. What were your initial feelings on Mrs. Starch's disappearance?A. At first I thought that she got slowed down somewhere and would just show up at school a bit late, but when there was evidence that she was around but nobody had seen her, I started thinking that there was something bigger going on.

Q. What do you think Twilly has to do with the fire and the disappearance? A. Recently Twilly has been driving Mrs. Starch's car and he has been in her house. He obviously knows Mrs. Starch so I think he might have something to do with her

disappearance, but I don't think he set the fire.

Q. Do you think that the fire and disappearance were intentional?A. I don't know why anyone would want to set a fire in such a remote place, the only thing that's even interesting about that swamp is the panthers. I also don't know why Mrs. Starch would intentionally disappear and I don't think anyone else would kidnap her. I really don't know.

Q. What are you going to do now?A. I'm going to find Mrs. Starch and figure out everything about the fire and disappearance.

Interview

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Building a Mystery

?I believe that the theme of this song is that someone is secretly making something that will cause a mystery and that they are a bit insane. The expounding "and a smile that won't wash away" shows an excellent example of personification because you can't physically wash away a smile, but the sentence still gives you the image of a smile that can't disappear. I think the writer used this sentence to show that someone was smiling with immense insanity and that the person couldn't stop smiling because they are too insane. An example of a metaphor in the song is in the utterance "you feed off our fears" because fear is not something someone can eat or feed off of. I believe the writer was trying to show that a person was like a monster because they were feeding off other's fears like a monster or a parasite. Another example of a metaphor is in the statement "when the evening's thin" because an evening can't be thin, but it can still be described as thin. I think in this sentence the writer was trying to express that the evening was luminous, but still ominous. Maybe there was a full moon to brighten things up while also making the night more gloomy.

How does the song relate to the story? The chorus of Building a Mystery connects to Scat because the chorus of the song talks about "building a mystery". I think that this relates to the book because everyone involved in the mystery of the disappearance and the fire. Everyone was sort of building a piece of the mystery. Also, some people in the story were "holding it in" and keeping their knowledge a secret. If one person knew everything that was going on, it wouldn't be a mystery, but since everyone knows something and contributes that little piece of knowledge, the events in the book are a mystery.

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Building a Mystery

[Chorus]

Oh, you're working, Building a mystery

Holding on and holding it inYeah you're working

Building a mysteryAnd choosing so carefully

Yeah, you're working,Building a mystery,

Holding on and holding it in,Oh yeah you're working,

Building a mysteryAnd choosing so carefully

You're building a mystery.

[2nd Verse]

You live in a churchWhere you sleep with voodoo dollsAnd you won't give up the search

For the ghosts in the hallsYou wear sandals in the snow

And a smile that won't wash awayCan you look out the window

Without your shadow getting in the way?

[4th Verse]

You woke up screaming aloudA prayer from your secret god

You feed off our fearsAnd hold back your tears, oh

Give us a tantrumAnd a know it all grin

Just when we need oneWhen the evening's thin

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Where I'm FromIn the view of Nick Waters

I am from the house that is a rock that has sheltered me from many raging storms.

From the net that has survived many baseballs in my backyard.I am from the towering trees that sway in the foggy, humid forest

air.And the panther that hides in the foliage in the swamp.

I am from Gregory, the bravest man alive, who is driven by his immense fearlessness

From lost limbs and training to rebuild strength.I am from the determination of achieving a goal that saved my

life.And the fear of falling into the fire of death.

I am from all endangered species on Earth

And the old, dusty house where I first saw them.I am from saving the truth when nobody believes me

And risking my life to help people in need.

I am from the life changing field trip that started an adventure,The thrashing war that couldn't be stopped.

I am from the burning feeling of loss And the hard-working, determined people that I have gotten to

know.

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Scat Evaluation

Is a mystery book absent of an in-triguing story line or suspenseful events an interesting read? What if it lacked de-scriptive details and figurative language? Would you be compelled to open it? I believe that students should have the freedom to choose the books that should be within the grade 8 curriculum, which brings up the question: what books should be in the grade 8 curriculum? Should they have intense suspense or amazing details? In this essay I will evalu-ate the book Scat on three criteria that would make a book fitting for the grade 8 curriculum. I don't believe that Scat should be included within the curriculum because it was lacking a riveting story line and plenty of descriptive and figura-tive language. Even though it was age appropriate and the theme would be re-latable to everyone, I still think it shouldn't be in the curriculum.

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Scat Evaluation

Scat shouldn't be in the grade 8 curricu-lum because I don't think it contains a very good story line. The story captured my eye during the action-packed beginning but unlike most books, it was not able to sustain my attention. This novel faltered as I got more into the plot. This mystery nov-el was insufficient in suspense; it would have been more exciting if the mystery remained as a mystery for longer so that I would keep asking questions and wonder-ing what was going to happen in the book. Moreover, it would have been more atten-tion-grabbing if the novel focused on the main plot of the book rather than focusing on the mediocre events and characters that were irrelevant to the main problem.

A scarcity of descriptive and figurative language was also a reason as to why Scat shouldn't be a part of the curriculum. I found that the novel didn't have any figura-tive language, which made the book plain and uneventful.

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Scat Evaluation

As a result of the shortage of descriptive and figurative language, the story was too bland to be very intriguing.

Even though this novel didn't have the first two criteria, it did have the third witch was if the book was age appropriate and the theme would be interesting to everyone. I found that this book had a good theme that would be interesting to everyone if the whole class or even grade read it. The novel was also more than age appropriate. If this book had a bet-ter story line and more descriptive language, I would have included it in the curriculum. It isn't a bad book, it just isn't as amazing as some other novels I have read.

In conclusion, I don't believe that the novel Scat should be included in the grade 8 cur-riculum because it doesn't have a very good story line or any large amount of suspense. It also didn't have much descriptive or figurative language in it, witch made it very bland.

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