Novel and Author Studies

Choose a novel you would like to read. As you read go through the following activities to gain a deeper understanding of how the author of your book created a interesting and engaging story for the reader. Once you have finished the book you can complete the Novel Engineering Project below.

Characterization Chart

Open this PDF in Notability and fill in specifics about the main character of your book. You can fill this in for more than one character. It will help you better understand how the author of your novel creates complex characters.

Physical Traits: words to describe what your character looks like as described by the author

Personality Traits: words to describe what kind of person they are. Examples: cruel, clever, kind, brave, funny, etc.

Motivations: reasons why they act the way they act. Examples: for the love of their family, to get revenge, etc.

How did the author show this?: What happened in the story to show you the motivations of the main character? Give examples from the text.

Characterization Chart.pdf

Literary Device Hunt

Literary devices are a tool that author's use to make their writing more interesting and engaging, it is what separate stories between what are really enjoyable to read and ones that leave you feeling less engaged. You will be learning more about flashback, hyperbole, imagery, and personification.

Watch the following videos on the four popular literary devices, then look for them in your reading. Fill in the chart as you read to keep track of which literary devices the author of your novel prefers.

Literary Device Collection

Novel Engineering Project

1. Time Limit: This challenge has no time limit.
2. Materials
  1. Household materials
  2. Recyclables
  3. Paper
  4. Coloring Utensils
  5. Whatever you have around the house to use, with parent permission
3. Choose a novel you have just finished reading.
4. Find a problem in the story.
5. Design and build a prototype to solve that problem using household items.
6. Take a video of yourself explaining your prototype and how it solves the problem. Upload this video to Google Drive and share it with your teacher.

"Dear Diary" Project

1. Select your book of choice
2. Materials - Paper, Notebook, or digital choice (Book Creator, Google Slides, etc.)
3. Your task is to create a diary or journal discussing the setting or settings in the book you read and the events that took place at these settings. You will write your diary entries in the first person (book main character of your choice) as if you were experiencing the setting by being there.
4. Each diary entry must include a date or day of the week (matching a realistic time in your book), a vivid description of a place in the story, and a description of the event that took place at this setting. Entries will be written using complete sentences, spelling, punctuation and capitalization. You may handwrite or type your entries, as mentioned above.
5. Most importantly, please ENJOY the book and where it takes you. Each book is different in their formats. Choose to make an entry after each chapter, or after every 30 pages, or another system you think works best for your book and the time you have available. Don’t stress about “how long”, or “how many entries”, but make it about “if I were the character, I would write about this event or situation”.
6. Take a video of yourself explaining your diary OR upload this video to Google Drive and share it with your teacher. You can also just share the document you created if you don't want to make a video.

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