Billy Goat Hill – Weekly Reading Response Blog

I have finished A Princess from Landover, and have started Billy Goat Hill. It’s about 2 boys who are between the ages 5 and 10. The youngest is named Luke, and the oldest is named Wade. Their father left them, and their mother is never home because her sons remind her too much of her latest son who died, which was named Mathew. The father is Earl, and the Mother Lucinda. One night they went to Billy Goat Hill, because Wade was challenged to slide down the dangerous hill, with a pit at the bottom, on a cardboard, by a bully from school. They waited all night, but the kid never came. They fell asleep and awoke to headlights. There was a gang of motorcyclist; they were all actually cops, who were under cover. Sergeant Lyle is the head one. They became friends. And a few nights later, they met him again at Eagle Rock, and cliff somewhere in the city. Lyle told them about his old friend who died at Eagles Rock. He was attacked by birds, and walked off the cliff to get away from the birds. But before they saw Lyle again and he told them that, Wade had a dream that Luke was attacked by birds but when he walked off the cliff, Wade and their awesome dog Mac saved him. Wade told Luke about his dream, and after that, Luke asked him to keep a slingshot with marbles at all times to kill any birds just in case. They went to Three Ponds, and after Mac saved Wade from drowning when Wade was trying to save Luke from drowning, they saw some birds at the other side of the pond. Wade shot one of his marble and thought he hit both birds. When they went to investigate, they only saw feathers. After looking some more, they found a cardboard slate, and when they picked it up, they found a dead body with a marble in the middle of his head.
Wade, who thought himself a murderer, one night decided to jump off Suicide Bridge. He was just about to jump after one of his tears slid off his nose, when a voice called him. Wade turned around a saw Lyle with a Buick. Lyle took him to one of his friends, Rodney, and right now they are eating Horse cakes…

Questions:

10. The authors craft is very interesting, and makes you want to read more. It has a lot of detail.

11. I think that maybe the author had a dramatic experience that he took, and molded it into a main idea in this book.

12. I relate to Wade, because I would go off Billy Goat Hill, and dare to go up on Eagles Rock. I would also save my sister from drowning, and risk drowning myself doing so.

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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