Monsters of Men – Weekly Reading Response Blog

I just finished the book ‘The Ask and The Answer’, the second book in the Chaos Walking Trilogy. Todd and Viola are in Haven, a town that was supposed to be safe for them, but the President got there too. The President renamed the town New Prentisstown. He also wants to kill Todd and Viola because he believes they were a part of the group bombing New Prentisstown called ‘The Answer’. Todd and Viola had the President on his knees, when Viola’s ship comes out of the sky, and into New Prentisstown. Even worse, the aliens on the planet, the Spackle, are coming to start a war against New Prentisstown, for enslaving so many of their kind. Todd has to untie the President and let him lead the war because they have no hope of winning otherwise. I am only on page 11 of the third and final book of the series called ‘Monsters of Men’. It’s called ‘Monsters of Men’ because they use this quote a lot in the book; ‘War makes monsters of men’, and the book is about the war breaking out.

Question 9:

I really like the author’s way of writing the book. As I said in my last post, on ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go’, the first book of the trilogy, the author writes in a way that you can tell what accents the characters have. But another thing that I really like is the chapters. Some chapters are told by Todd’s point of view and others by Viola. I think this is interesting because it tells two completely different stories without getting the reader mixed up.

Question 4:

Something that surprised me was when the President shot his son. I found this surprising because, well, who wouldn’t? It was definitely effective because I really didn’t see it coming at all! I knew the President was a horrible person, but I didn’t think he would ki9ll his own son! I also really liked Davy. It was a shame to see him go, especially at his father’s hands.

Question 2:

Something that puzzled me was the character Lee. Lee isn’t a main character, but I don’t understand what his story is. His mother and sister both got killed, but Lee is still looking for them. He knows they died and he knows they’re not coming back, but yet, he still thinks they could be alive. He even saw them get shot! I think Lee is just holding onto the hope that they may still be alive, but I am still puzzled about his background story.

3 comments

jean that sounds like a great book!

Do you find it confusing to hear everyones thoughts?

jmoore7811 says:

March 27, 2012 at 3:50 pm

It sounds like it would be confusing, but they normally tell you whose thoughts they are, and they make the thoughts in a different font.

Comments are closed.

Reading Response Prompts

1. Tell what like or dislike about the book and why.

2. Tell about parts of your book that puzzled you or made you ask a question.

3. Tell what you noticed about the characters, such as what made them act as they did or how they changed.

4. Write about something in the book that surprised you or that you found interesting.

5. Write your predictions and about whether your predictions were right.

6. Ask for help in figuring out meaning of your book.

7. Tell about the connections that you made while reading the book. Tell how it reminds you of yourself, of people you know, or of something that happened in your life. It might remind you of other books, especially the characters, the events, or the setting.

8. Write about the author’s style and how it makes you feel.

9. Write about the language the author used and why you think the author wrote this way.

10. Write about the author’s craft – what was effective about the way the author wrote.

11. Write about anything else that you may think of that deals with the book.

12. Do you relate to any of the characters in the book? Explain how and why.

13. If you abanded the book, why did you?

14. Name 3 examples of signals that went off in your head while you were reading and explain them.

15. Explain what happened at the climax and explain why you think that is the climax.

16. Tell what you think could be changed in the book to make it better for readers.

Reading Response Rubric

Level 3 (B Range)
In your response you:
- have written at least one post a week
- demonstrate that you have read a variety of fiction and non-fiction materials
- reflect on the books you read effectively- relate to the books you read
- retell only the most important information in your responses
- explain your interpretation of a written work clearly, supporting it with evidence from the work and from your own knowledge and experiences clearly.
- demonstrate that you are a critical thinker that examines characters, plot, setting and literary - devices effectively

Level 4 (A Range)
In your response you:
- have written more than one post a week
- demonstrate that you have read a good variety of fiction and non-fiction materials
- reflect on the books you read very effectively
- relate to the books you read very effectively
- retell only the most important information in your responses
- explain your interpretation of a written work clearly, supporting it with evidence from the work and from your own knowledge and experiences clearly and concisely.
- demonstrate that you are a highly critical thinker that examines characters, plot, setting and literary devices effectively