Book Detail

Marven of the Great North Woods

Publication Information
Author:  Lasky, Kathryn Illustrator:  Hawkes, Kevin
Title:  Marven of the Great North Woods Date:  1997
Publisher:  Harcourt Brace City:  San Diego
ISBN, paperback:  0-15-200104-2 ISBN, hardback:  

Recommended audience:
ABE/ABLE:   Yes ESOL:  
Family:   Yes Young Adult:  
Picture:   Yes

General Information:
Book Type(s):    easy reading, biography and autobiography, true story

HSE Descriptor(s):   

Summary:
Marven's immigrant Russian Jewish family sends him alone by train and by ski to a logging camp in Minnesota to escape the diphtheria epidemic in the city of Duluth. He finds a niche for himself in very different cultural surroundings through the friendship of a French Canadian logger. The author includes a note about the biographical origins of the story.

Teaching Ideas:
As an introduction to telling and writing family stories, the book makes a good read aloud with prediction strategies like DR-TA. Students interested in learning more about the diphtheria epidemic can do research in What the Doctor Ordered. Students could also compare and contrast Marven's experiences of personal relocation with the children of the Holocaust in The Lily Cupboard and in impoverished Appalachia in the story "Family Planning" in Choices. How do parents feel? How do children feel? Using the information in the author's note, students may want to speculate about how this experience affected Marven later in life.

Teaching Strategies:
bullet DR-TA: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/dr_ta.pdf
bullet Fluency Activities
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/fluency_activities.pdf

Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
bullet Ethnic Groups > Jewish
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > group > relationships > intergenerational
bullet Emotions-Personal Issues > personal issues > individual > life choices > problem solving
bullet Geography > locations > U.S. states/regions > Northern United States
bullet Hardships > problem solving
bullet Social Studies > sociology > social issues > child labor
bullet Social Studies > sociology > social issues > epidemics
bullet Ethnic Groups > French Canadians
bullet Work > occupations > logging


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