Book Detail

Fortune's Bones

Publication Information
Author:  Nelson, Marilyn Illustrator:  photographs
Title:  Fortune's Bones Date:  2004
Publisher:  Front Street City:  Asheville, NC
ISBN, paperback:  1-932425-12-8 ISBN, hardback:  

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

General Information:
Book Type(s):    poetry, nonfiction

HSE Descriptor(s):    science| social studies

Summary:
A powerful poem, written in the form of a requiem, recovers the life and reconstructed history of a skeleton used by a Dr. Porter to teach anatomy in Waterbury, Connecticut. The format places author's notes across from sections of the poem told by different people. The book includes a glossary and information about the reclamation project.

Teaching Ideas:
There are so many discussion possibilities. Why does the author subtitle the work Manumission Requiem? What does Dr. Porter mean when he says, "I enter Fortune, and he enters me/I was not this body; I was not these bones." Why do you think the poet chose this reclamation project as the subject for her poem? This poem would be a powerful Readers Theater piece. Students could research information about about the use of forensics and anthropology to identify bodies.

Teaching Strategies:
bullet Agree? Disagree? Why?
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/agree_disagree_why.pdf
bullet Bleich's Heuristic for Responding to Reading
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/bleichs_heuristic.pdf
bullet Helping Students in the Writing Process
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/help_writing_process.pdf
bullet Reader's Theater
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/readers_theater.pdf
bullet Word Sorts
   http://literacy.kent.edu/eureka/strategies/word_sorts.pdf

Keywords: select any link below for a list of resources which also have that keyword
bullet History > time period > 18th Century
bullet Literature and Language > figurative language > imagery
bullet Literature and Language > figurative language > symbolism
bullet Music
bullet Science > medicine > anatomy
bullet Social Studies > anthropology
bullet Social Studies > anthropology > forensic
bullet Literature and Language > poetry
bullet Geography > economics > consumerism


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