In this blog post I will guide you through the different reading responses.
- If there is an answer missing on reading response two, you have probably asked a question before, that you are able to answer by now.
- If there is an answer missing on reading reponse five, you need to write Stanley's diary from his first full day at Camp Green Lake. Stanley's fakebook wall might help you with this: http://thewallmachine.com/uFH5ZV.html
- If there is an answer missing on reading response six, you need to answer the comprehension questions for chapters 10 and 11. The summary below might help you with that:
When Stanley wakes up on the second day at camp, every muscle in his body aches and he could hardly lift his spoon at breakfast.
Stanley's second hole is also very hard to dig. While he is digging he finds the fossil of a fish. He has been told by Mr. Pendanski that if he finds anything interesting he might get a day off from digging holes.
When the water truck comes Stanley notices that there is always an order to the line, with X-Ray first and then Armpit, Squid, Zigzag, Magnet, Zero, and lastly Stanley.
Stanley shows the fish fossil to Mr. Pendanski but Mr. Pendanski laughs and says that the fossil is not what the Warden wants. Stanley has to finish digging his hole.
X-Ray asks Stanley to give him anything else interesting that he might find. X- Ray sees very badly and will never be able to find anything that might be in the holes. X-Ray says that since he has been at the camp for a year and Stanley has only been there a month, it is more important for X-Ray to get the day off. Stanley agrees because he wants X-Ray to like him.
Stanley wonders why everyone follows what X-Ray does. He realizes that X-Ray is the smallest boy apart from Zero and that he, Stanley, is actually the largest boy.
When Stanley continues to dig his hole he imagines a confrontation between the guy whol bullied him at school, Derrick Dunne and the boys here. He enjoys thinking of Derrick Dunne, who has so often tormented Stanley, being beaten up by the boys from the camp. Thinking of this makes it easier to dig.
- If there is an answer missing on reading response eight, you need to answer questions about the story until chapter 28 of the novel. The summary below might help you with that:
The story goes back to Green Lake as it was one hundred and ten years ago. Sam the onion man sells onions and remedies made from onions to the town. He has a donkey named Mary Lou who pulls his cart of onions. Sam rows his boat across the lake to get to his secret onion field where the water runs uphill. He claims that onions are very important to a person's health and while the towns-people go to the doctor for medicine, they also buy onion remedies from Sam.
Miss Katherine Barlow was the teacher of the one room schoolhouse and she made wonderful spiced peaches that were preserved to last a year or longer. Charles Walker, or Trout Walker as he was called because of his horrible foot odor, came to classes that Miss Katherine taught. But Trout did not come to learn. He was from the richest family in town and he wanted to marry Miss Katherine. One day he asked Miss Katherine to go on a ride with him in his new motorized boat. Trout is used to getting his own way so he is shocked and angry when Miss Katherine refuses to go with him.
One day Miss Katherine asks Sam to fix the hole in the schoolhouse roof in exchange for some of her spiced peaches. Sam fixes the roof and he and Miss Katherine enjoy their conversations about poetry and other things. Sam cannot attend school because he is black. Miss Katherine continues to find things for Sam to fix because she likes their conversations. When the schoolhouse has nothing left to fix she tells Sam her heart is broken and he kisses her. One townsperson, Hattie Parker, sees them and points at them, whispering, " God will punish you."
The news spreads that Miss Katherine and Sam have kissed. At this time it is against the law for a black man to kiss a white woman and the angry town comes to the schoolhouse to attack Miss Katherine and her books. She runs to the sheriff for help and finds that he is drunk and preparing to hang Sam. When she asks the sheriff to help her he says, "Kiss me…You kissed the onion picker. Why won't you kiss me?"
Miss Katherine runs to find Sam and they climb into his boat. Sam is sad to leave Mary Lou behind but Katherine tells him they must hurry. Even if Sam is strong, he cannot row faster than Trout Walker's motorized boat. Walker crashes into Sam's boat and Sam is shot and killed. Katherine is brought back to shore where she finds Mary Lou has been shot. After that day, not one drop of rain has ever fallen on Green Lake.
"You make the decision: Whom did God punish?"
Three days after Sam's death Katherine Barlow kills the Sheriff and then applies lipstick before kissing his dead face. Then Katherine Barlow spends twenty years as a dangerous outlaw in the West, known as Kissin' Kate Barlow.
- If there is an answer missing on reading response ten, you need to answer questions about chapter 30 in the book. The summary below might help you with that:
When Stanley spends another day digging holes, he thinks about God's thumb and wonders if Kate Barlow lived in this area and if it was actually her gold lipstick tube that he found.
When Mr. Pendanski delivers their bag lunches the other boys taunt Stanley about having Zero dig Stanley's hole for him.
Zigzag pushes Stanley, who doesn't want to fight.
Mr. Pendanski comes over and tells Stanley to fight back. Stanley softly hits Zigzag who in return beats Stanley over and over again and jumps on top of him.
Zero then comes to Stanley's rescue and attacks Zigzag and almost kills him until Armpit breaks them up.
Mr. Pendanski fires his pistol into the air and the Warden arrives. The boys tell the Warden that Zero has been digging some of Stanley's hole.
Stanley explains that he's teaching Zero to read and Mr. Pendanski says, " You might as well try to teach this shovel to read! It's got more brains than Zero."
The Warden tries to humiliate Zero by spelling some words for him and asks him to pronounce them. When Zero pronounces h-a-t as chat everyone laughs at him.
The Warden forbids Stanley to teach Zero to read and Mr. Pendanski taunts Zero about how stupid he is.
Zero says that he will not dig any more holes and when Mr. Pendanski tells him that digging holes is all he'll ever be good for, Zero smashes his shovel across Mr. Pendanski's face and runs away.
The Warden tells the other counselors not to bother about Zero because he'll have to return for water. Then she says that the remaining six boys must still dig seven holes.
- If there is an answer missing on reading response eleven, you are going to write Stanley's diary. Look at the summary of chapters 31-33 for help:
Stanley is angry with everyone, and also himself. He regrets having Zero dig his hole for him. He thinks of how he can help Zero but can not think of any ways to help that won't get him punished by the Warden.
He hopes that Zero will travel to the mountain that looks like a thumb.
Mr. Pendanski and the Warden ask Stanley if he knows where Zero is and then they discuss how they will change Zero's records so that no one will ever find him. Mr. Peandanski and the Warden say that they do not want anyone in the A.G.'s office to know about Zero. In the end they decide that no one will care about Zero.
A new boy, who was arrested for stealing cars, takes over Zero's cot. His name is Brian but X-Ray names him Twitch because he fidgets. Stanley continues to worry about Zero and when Mr. Sir drives in the truck to give them water, Stanley all of a sudden decides to steal it. He doesn't know how to drive but Twitch yells a few directions at him and Stanley races away. Soon Stanley drives the truck into a hole. He gets out and runs away.
No one follows Stanley when he runs away from the truck. He finds many holes as he walks, and a family of yellow-spotted lizards in one of them. He runs away from the lizards and later finds one sunflower seed in a burlap bag.
