we are all made of molecles - Susin Nielsen
Thirteen-year-old Stewart Inkster is academically brilliant but "ungifted" socially. Fourteen-year-old Ashley Anderson is the undisputed "It" girl of grade nine, but her marks stink. Their worlds are about to collide when Stewart and his dad move in with Ashley and her mom. "The Brady Bunch" it isn't. Stewart is trying to be 89.9% happy about it, but Ashley is 110% horrified. She already has to hide the truth behind her parents' divorce; "Spewart" could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. They are complete opposites. And yet, no matter their differences, they share one thing in common: they--like the rest of us--are all made of molecules.
Written in alternating voices, Susin Nielsen deftly explores family tragedy and family ties; sibling rivalry and union; and adolescent confusion and revelation
~ Excert taken from Amazon.ca
Written in alternating voices, Susin Nielsen deftly explores family tragedy and family ties; sibling rivalry and union; and adolescent confusion and revelation
~ Excert taken from Amazon.ca
Themes: Family, Bullying, Peer Pressure, Friendship, Grief & Loss, Homophobia, Truth, Acceptance, Rejection,
This is an EXCELLENT book for engaging readers in meaningful conversation about all of the above themes!!
Recommended Grades - Grade 6 and up
Susin Nielsen - The Author's Website
Activities:
**I strongly recommend reading it as a read aloud, while also doing an in-depth character analysis of all the characters. This book will lead to thoughtful, meaningful conversations with your class. The only bad thing about this novel - it isn't longer!
This novel explores many themes. It is a fantastic opportunity to explore and discuss many modern issues facing teens today.
Character Study: All the characters are well written and a strong. The alternating points of view Stewart and Ashley are distinct and well thought out. Students will be able to see the sincere changes in the characters. Ashley, in particular, works through many issues facing teenage girls, and comes out the other side with some new perspectives on those around her.
I also love these templates for character analysis that I found a few years ago. You will see that I have linked this site for most of the novels featured here. There are a variety of options here for all ages and grades. The activities that compare two characters are excellent. You can compare the characters in the novel to each other. Or compare them to other novels your students have read.
There is value in having the students compare the characters to themselves. A great writing assignment would be to have them pick a character that they most relate to and then compare and contrast themselves to that character.
Point of View - The book is written from the two perspective of Stewart and Ashley, and it flips back and forth between the two. A great writing opportunity is to rewrite one section of the Stewart's narrative from Ashley’s point of view and vice versa. This is a difficult activity for a lot of students to do. A great story to practice this with first is The Dinner Party by Mona Gardner. Here is a link to the story and some comprehension questions. After they have completed reading the story and completing the activities then have them rewrite the story from the point of view of the hostess. Discuss how to get inside her head. What must have she been thinking when she first felt the cobra? How did she know what to do? What parts need to be eliminated? What parts need to just be slightly reworded? Doing this writing task as a class maybe useful. Or perhaps have students work in pairs to rewrite from different point of view.
Discussion Questions and Activities -
Educators Guide from Susin Nielsen-
This study guide from Random House is well done. Lots of great questions to spark writing and discussion. The four pre-reading activities are highly recommended!
Discussion Questions from World Book Day
Study guide from Wordfest. This resource includes some curriculum connections and more great questions to support your study of this novel.
Stewarts Graphs - Part of Stewarts unique voice is the graphs he makes of his day. What do they add to the novel? How can we graph our days in this way? Why would it be important to know how our moods change and what the triggers are? How does analyzing our own day’s help us work out the parts of ourselves we need to work on?
Some words for thought from the novel
"I guess it's unrealistic for us to expect Ashley to be happy that we've moved in right of the bat . . . She's had a lot of upheaval in her life." The sucky part of me wanted to say, She's had upheaval? She didn't have to change houses, and bedrooms, and neighbourhoods! And sure, her parents are divorced, but at least they are both still ALIVE!
Instead I nodded and said, "I understand, Dad. Time heals all wounds . . ."
Page 24 (Stewart)
"The world's a big place. I'm going to have to get along with all sorts of different people, not just people who are more or less like me." - page 31 (Stewart)
The stupid beast (cat) scratched me!
That made me feels really sad for some reason. Maybe because it had happened right after Lauren and my other friends ignored me, but it made me feel like everyone was against me, human and animal. And then that made me start to wonder if maybe I was a teeny bit responsible, like maybe I'd gone too far telling people about Lauren's bra, because sometimes I do things that feel right and justified in the moment but that hours later don't feel right after all.
page 51 (Ashley)
Lauren is just underneath me, along with Yoko. Amira and Lindsay are a rung lower, and Claudia is a bit lower still. (People like Stewart don't even count. They don't even have a foot on the ladder. They can't even touch the ladder. They are forbidden to go anywhere near the ladder.)
page 74 (Ashley)
The thing is: he's so perfect in every other way. And usually he is very sweet to me. Maybe I can change the not-so-nice stuff over time. Men change for the better thanks to the love of a good woman all the time in the movies, so why not in real life?
I mean, we look so good together!! Like we could be on the cover of a magazine!! Do I really want to throw that all away over one slightly creepy night?
page 172 (Ashley)
This is an EXCELLENT book for engaging readers in meaningful conversation about all of the above themes!!
Recommended Grades - Grade 6 and up
Susin Nielsen - The Author's Website
Activities:
**I strongly recommend reading it as a read aloud, while also doing an in-depth character analysis of all the characters. This book will lead to thoughtful, meaningful conversations with your class. The only bad thing about this novel - it isn't longer!
This novel explores many themes. It is a fantastic opportunity to explore and discuss many modern issues facing teens today.
Character Study: All the characters are well written and a strong. The alternating points of view Stewart and Ashley are distinct and well thought out. Students will be able to see the sincere changes in the characters. Ashley, in particular, works through many issues facing teenage girls, and comes out the other side with some new perspectives on those around her.
I also love these templates for character analysis that I found a few years ago. You will see that I have linked this site for most of the novels featured here. There are a variety of options here for all ages and grades. The activities that compare two characters are excellent. You can compare the characters in the novel to each other. Or compare them to other novels your students have read.
There is value in having the students compare the characters to themselves. A great writing assignment would be to have them pick a character that they most relate to and then compare and contrast themselves to that character.
Point of View - The book is written from the two perspective of Stewart and Ashley, and it flips back and forth between the two. A great writing opportunity is to rewrite one section of the Stewart's narrative from Ashley’s point of view and vice versa. This is a difficult activity for a lot of students to do. A great story to practice this with first is The Dinner Party by Mona Gardner. Here is a link to the story and some comprehension questions. After they have completed reading the story and completing the activities then have them rewrite the story from the point of view of the hostess. Discuss how to get inside her head. What must have she been thinking when she first felt the cobra? How did she know what to do? What parts need to be eliminated? What parts need to just be slightly reworded? Doing this writing task as a class maybe useful. Or perhaps have students work in pairs to rewrite from different point of view.
Discussion Questions and Activities -
Educators Guide from Susin Nielsen-
This study guide from Random House is well done. Lots of great questions to spark writing and discussion. The four pre-reading activities are highly recommended!
Discussion Questions from World Book Day
Study guide from Wordfest. This resource includes some curriculum connections and more great questions to support your study of this novel.
Stewarts Graphs - Part of Stewarts unique voice is the graphs he makes of his day. What do they add to the novel? How can we graph our days in this way? Why would it be important to know how our moods change and what the triggers are? How does analyzing our own day’s help us work out the parts of ourselves we need to work on?
Some words for thought from the novel
"I guess it's unrealistic for us to expect Ashley to be happy that we've moved in right of the bat . . . She's had a lot of upheaval in her life." The sucky part of me wanted to say, She's had upheaval? She didn't have to change houses, and bedrooms, and neighbourhoods! And sure, her parents are divorced, but at least they are both still ALIVE!
Instead I nodded and said, "I understand, Dad. Time heals all wounds . . ."
Page 24 (Stewart)
"The world's a big place. I'm going to have to get along with all sorts of different people, not just people who are more or less like me." - page 31 (Stewart)
The stupid beast (cat) scratched me!
That made me feels really sad for some reason. Maybe because it had happened right after Lauren and my other friends ignored me, but it made me feel like everyone was against me, human and animal. And then that made me start to wonder if maybe I was a teeny bit responsible, like maybe I'd gone too far telling people about Lauren's bra, because sometimes I do things that feel right and justified in the moment but that hours later don't feel right after all.
page 51 (Ashley)
Lauren is just underneath me, along with Yoko. Amira and Lindsay are a rung lower, and Claudia is a bit lower still. (People like Stewart don't even count. They don't even have a foot on the ladder. They can't even touch the ladder. They are forbidden to go anywhere near the ladder.)
page 74 (Ashley)
The thing is: he's so perfect in every other way. And usually he is very sweet to me. Maybe I can change the not-so-nice stuff over time. Men change for the better thanks to the love of a good woman all the time in the movies, so why not in real life?
I mean, we look so good together!! Like we could be on the cover of a magazine!! Do I really want to throw that all away over one slightly creepy night?
page 172 (Ashley)