William Sleator's "Oddballs": A Discussion Guide
By David Bruce
()
About this ebook
This guide contains many questions about William Sleator’s "Oddballs "and their answers. Of course, I hope that teachers will find it useful as a guide for discussions. It can also be used for short writing assignments. Students can answer selected questions from this guide orally or in one or more paragraphs.
A major reason to use "Oddballs" in schools is as a model for autobiographical writing. Writing autobiographical essays can be a fun composition assignment, and for some students it can be an art.
Be aware that although "Oddballs" was written for children in middle school and junior high school and for young adults in high school, it can also be used in college courses. The essays are entertaining and well written, and they are excellent models for the autobiographical essays you can ask your students to write.
David Bruce
I would like to see my retellings of classic literature used in schools, so I give permission to the country of Finland (and all other countries) to give copies of my eBooks to all students and citizens forever. I also give permission to the state of Texas (and all other states) to give copies of my eBooks to all students forever. I also give permission to all teachers to give copies of my eBooks to all students forever.Teachers need not actually teach my retellings. Teachers are welcome to give students copies of my eBooks as background material. For example, if they are teaching Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” teachers are welcome to give students copies of my “Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’: A Retelling in Prose” and tell students, “Here’s another ancient epic you may want to read in your spare time.”Do you know a language other than English? I give you permission to translate any of my retellings of classic literature, copyright your translation in your name, publish or self-publish your translation (but do say it's a translation of something I wrote), and keep all the royalties for yourself.Libraries, download my books free. This is from Smashwords' FAQ section:"Does Smashwords distribute to libraries?"Yes! We have two methods of distributing to libraries: 1. Via library aggregators. Library aggregators, such as OverDrive and Baker & Taylor's Axis360 service, allow libraries to purchase books. Smashwords is working with multiple library aggregators, and is in the process of signing up additional aggregators. 2. On August 7, 2012, Smashwords announced Library Direct. This distribution option allows libraries and library networks to acquire and host Smashwords ebooks on their own servers. This option is only available to libraries who place large "opening collection" orders, typically in the range of $20,000-$50,000, and the libraries must have the ability to host and manage the books, and apply industry-standard DRM to manage one-checkout-at-a-time borrows."David Bruce is a retired anecdote columnist at "The Athens News" in Athens, Ohio. He has also retired from teaching English and philosophy at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.SOME BOOKS BY DAVID BRUCERetellings of a Classic Work of Literature:Arden of Favorsham: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Alchemist: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Arraignment, or Poetaster: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Case is Altered: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Catiline’s Conspiracy: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Epicene: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Every Man in His Humor: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Every Man Out of His Humor: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Fountain of Self-Love, or Cynthia’s Revels: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Magnetic Lady: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The New Inn: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Sejanus' Fall: A RetellingBen Jonson’s The Staple of News: A RetellingBen Jonson’s A Tale of a Tub: A RetellingBen Jonson’s Volpone, or the Fox: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Complete Plays: RetellingsChristopher Marlowe’s Dido, Queen of Carthage: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus: Retellings of the 1604 A-Text and of the 1616 B-TextChristopher Marlowe’s Edward II: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s The Massacre at Paris: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s The Rich Jew of Malta: A RetellingChristopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Parts 1 and 2: RetellingsDante’s Divine Comedy: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Inferno: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Purgatory: A Retelling in ProseDante’s Paradise: A Retelling in ProseThe Famous Victories of Henry V: A RetellingFrom the Iliad to the Odyssey: A Retelling in Prose of Quintus of Smyrna’s PosthomericaGeorge Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston’s Eastward Ho! A RetellingGeorge Peele: Five Plays Retold in Modern EnglishGeorge Peele’s The Arraignment of Paris: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s The Battle of Alcazar: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s David and Bathsheba, and the Tragedy of Absalom: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s Edward I: A RetellingGeorge Peele’s The Old Wives’ Tale: A RetellingGeorge-A-Greene, The Pinner of Wakefield: A RetellingThe History of King Leir: A RetellingHomer’s Iliad: A Retelling in ProseHomer’s Odyssey: A Retelling in ProseJason and the Argonauts: A Retelling in Prose of Apollonius of Rhodes’ ArgonauticaThe Jests of George Peele: A RetellingJohn Ford: Eight Plays Translated into Modern EnglishJohn Ford’s The Broken Heart: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Fancies, Chaste and Noble: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Lady’s Trial: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Lover’s Melancholy: A RetellingJohn Ford’s Love’s Sacrifice: A RetellingJohn Ford’s Perkin Warbeck: A RetellingJohn Ford’s The Queen: A RetellingJohn Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Campaspe: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Endymion, the Man in the Moon: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Gallathea, aka Galathea, aka Galatea: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Love's Metamorphosis: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Midas: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Mother Bombie: A RetellingJohn Lyly's Sappho and Phao: A RetellingJohn Lyly's The Woman in the Moon: A RetellingJohn Webster’s The White Devil: A RetellingJ.W. Gent.'s The Valiant Scot: A RetellingKing Edward III: A RetellingMankind: A Medieval Morality Play (A Retelling)Margaret Cavendish's The Unnatural Tragedy: A RetellingThe Merry Devil of Edmonton: A RetellingRobert Greene’s Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay: A RetellingThe Taming of a Shrew: A RetellingTarlton’s Jests: A RetellingThomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker’s The Roaring Girl: A RetellingThomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling: A RetellingThomas Middleton's A Chaste Maid in Cheapside: A RetellingThomas Middleton's Women Beware Women: A RetellingThe Trojan War and Its Aftermath: Four Ancient Epic PoemsVirgil’s Aeneid: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 5 Late Romances: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 10 Histories: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 11 Tragedies: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 12 Comedies: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 38 Plays: Retellings in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV, aka Henry IV, Part 1: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 2 Henry IV, aka Henry IV, Part 2: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 1: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 2 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 2: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s 3 Henry VI, aka Henry VI, Part 3: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Coriolanus: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Cymbeline: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Hamlet: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Henry V: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Henry VIII: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s King John: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s King Lear: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Love’s Labor’s Lost: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Macbeth: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Othello: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Richard II: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Richard III: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Tempest: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Two Noble Kinsmen: A Retelling in ProseWilliam Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale: A Retelling in ProseChildren’s Biography:Nadia Comaneci: Perfect TenAnecdote Collections:250 Anecdotes About Music250 Anecdotes About Opera250 Anecdotes About Religion250 Anecdotes About Religion: Volume 2Be a Work of Art: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesThe Coolest People in Art: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in the Arts: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in Books: 250 AnecdotesThe Coolest People in Comedy: 250 AnecdotesCreate, Then Take a Break: 250 AnecdotesDon’t Fear the Reaper: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Art: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Books, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Comedy: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Dance: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 4: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 5: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Families, Volume 6: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Movies: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Music, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Neighborhoods: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Relationships: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Sports: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Sports, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Television and Radio: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People in Theater: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People Who Live Life: 250 AnecdotesThe Funniest People Who Live Life, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesMaximum Cool: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Movies: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Politics and History, Volume 3: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Religion: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People in Sports: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People Who Live Life: 250 AnecdotesThe Most Interesting People Who Live Life, Volume 2: 250 AnecdotesReality is Fabulous: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesResist Psychic Death: 250 AnecdotesSeize the Day: 250 Anecdotes and StoriesKindest People Series:The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 1The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 2The Kindest People Who Do Good Deeds: Volume 3Discussion Guide Series:Dante’s Inferno: A Discussion GuideDante’s Paradise: A Discussion GuideDante’s Purgatory: A Discussion GuideForrest Carter’s The Education of Little Tree: A Discussion GuideHomer’s Iliad: A Discussion GuideHomer’s Odyssey: A Discussion GuideJane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: A Discussion GuideJerry Spinelli’s Maniac Magee: A Discussion GuideJerry Spinelli’s Stargirl: A Discussion GuideJonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal”: A Discussion GuideLloyd Alexander’s The Black Cauldron: A Discussion GuideLloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: A Discussion GuideMark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper: A Discussion GuideNancy Garden’s Annie on My Mind: A Discussion GuideNicholas Sparks’ A Walk to Remember: A Discussion GuideVirgil’s Aeneid: A Discussion GuideVirgil’s “The Fall of Troy”: A Discussion GuideVoltaire’s Candide: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s 1 Henry IV: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s Macbeth: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: A Discussion GuideWilliam Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet: A Discussion GuideWilliam Sleator’s Oddballs: A Discussion GuideComposition Projects:Composition Project: Writing an Autobiographical EssayComposition Project: Writing a Hero-of-Human-Rights EssayComposition Project: Writing a Problem-Solving LetterTeaching:How to Teach the Autobiographical Essay Composition Project in 9 ClassesAutobiography (of sorts):My Life and Hard Times, or Down and Out in Athens, OhioMiscellaneous:Mark Twain Anecdotes and QuotesProblem-Solving 101: Can You Solve the Problem?Why I Support Same-Sex Civil MarriageBlogs:https://davidbruceblog429065578.wordpress.comhttps://davidbrucebooks.blogspot.comhttps://davidbruceblog4.wordpress.comhttps://bruceb22.wixsite.com/website
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William Sleator's "Oddballs" - David Bruce
William Sleator’s Oddballs: A Discussion Guide
By David Bruce
Copyright 2013 by Bruce D. Bruce
SMASHWORDS EDITION
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•••
Preface
The purpose of this book is educational. I enjoy reading William Sleator’s Oddballs, and I believe that it is an excellent book for children, young adults, college students and middle-aged adults such as myself to read.
This guide contains many questions about William Sleator’s Oddballs and their answers. Of course, I hope that teachers will find it useful as a guide for discussions. It can also be used for short writing assignments. Students can answer selected questions from this guide orally or in one or more paragraphs.
A major reason to use Oddballs in schools is as a model for autobiographical writing. Writing autobiographical essays can be a fun composition assignment, and for some students it can be an art.
Be aware that although Oddballs was written for children in middle school and junior high school and for young adults in high school, it can also be used in college courses. The essays are entertaining and well written, and they are excellent models for the autobiographical essays you can ask your students to write.
I hope to encourage teachers to teach William Sleator’s Oddballs, and I hope to lessen the time needed for teachers to prepare to teach this book. I also hope to give teachers many anecdotes to tell in class.
Many reasons can be advanced for teaching William Sleator’s Oddballs:
• Oddballs is quite simply a well-written and entertaining book with many anecdotes.
• Oddballs is readily available in book form, and an earlier version of Oddballs (it is the version that William Sleator submitted to the publisher) is available at
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~sleator/oddballs/oddballs.html
• Because of the existence of two versions of Oddballs, teachers and students can compare the two versions. Teachers and students can speculate about why William Sleator made changes in the printed version of the book. In doing so, students will learn to consider the reader when they write.
• Oddballs can be an excellent model to use if you wish your students to write autobiographical essays. Students can read about the games that Billy and his siblings played, and they can write about the games that they play now or played when they were younger.
This book uses many short quotations from William Sleator’s Oddballs. This use is consistent with fair use:
§ 107. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use
Release date: 2004-04-30
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include —
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
Source of Fair Use information:
This is a royalty-free book, and I will let anyone download it for free.
Note: It’s a good idea to look at the appendixes before reading this guide because some of the study questions refer to things such as short reaction memos and the autobiographical essay assignment.
Chapter 1: Games
Note: Two William Sleators exist. One William Sleator is Billy, who grew up to write Oddballs; the other William Sleator is Billy’s father. From now on in this Discussion Guide, William Sleator
and Mr. Sleator
will be used to refer to Billy’s father. Billy
will be used to refer to Billy and to the author of Oddballs.
Note: The online version of this essay is titled Danny and Tycho.
Teachers may want their students to read both the printed version of the essay and the online version, then talk about why Billy made changes in the printed version.
• What can you learn from this essay that can help you write better — including perhaps an autobiographical essay of your own?
Anecdotes are funny and good reading.
Eccentrics and nonconformists are fun to read about.
Dialogue reads well when well written.
Games that you played when you were a kid make a good topic to write about.
Note this very good transition:
On his fifth birthday Tycho very calmly and skillfully went on the toilet, as though he’d always done it that way. He’s been using the toilet ever since.
Without Tycho’s messes to clean up, babysitting became a lot easier.
The transition is from Tycho’s toilet training to babysitting.
• What is your opinion of the opening sentence of the printed version of this essay?
This is the opening sentence of the printed version of this essay:
The best presents our parents ever gave to my sister, Vicky, and me were our little brothers.
I like this opening sentence. It lets us know that this book is about family and about love.
Perhaps this sentence is a little misleading. This is not a sappy family. The members of this family love each other, but certainly they will not always get along.
• The online version of the opening sentence of this essay is a little different. How is it different, and why do you think that Billy made that change to the opening sentence?
This is the opening sentence of the online version of this essay:
The best toys our parents ever gave to my sister, Vicky, and me were our little brothers.
Toys,
to me, is a more materialistic word than presents.
Toys are physical objects such as balls, board games, and Frisbees.
• What game about BMs do Billy and Vicky play on car trips? (What are BMs, anyway?)
BMs are Bowel Movements.
The way that Billy and Vicky play the game is to pretend to be Bowel Movements and to describe the passage of the BM through the intestines.
Vicky pretends to be the BM of Elizabeth, the Queen of England, and she does such things as to describe the royal bathrooms, which are very fancy. Vicky pretends to have been an Oreo cookie or a Hostess cupcake that has been eaten by Queen Elizabeth.
Billy had been sick from overindulgence a couple of times. Once he ate way too many pints of blackberries. Another time he ate way too much tzimmes, which is a Jewish meat-and-carrot stew
(4). Therefore, his BM is composed of these two kinds of food, resulting in a purple-and-orange-striped BM
(4).
• Are kids fascinated by the subject of BMs?
Billy writes that the subject of BMs fascinates kids, and this seems to be true. For example, one very popular book for very young kids is Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi. A book review that appeared in The Expositor says this:
Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi is part biology textbook, part sociological treatise and all celebration of a very natural process. Both my daughters begged me to read the book over and over again. They marveled at the enormity of the elephant’s poop and searched with the skill of a scientist for the tiny specks which represent bug poop. The text is simple and straightforward but not without humor. ‘An elephant makes a big poop,’ the book begins. ‘A mouse makes a tiny poop. A one-hump camel makes a one-hump poop, [a]nd a two-hump camel makes a two-hump poop. Only kidding!’ The colorful illustrations are eye-catching and deceptively detailed. The poop of each animal species is very distinctive in size, shape and color…A book which doesn’t have any preachy overtones but merely explains where and how each living creature poops seems to work for my two-year-old. In fact, it’s number one on the bathroom reading list at our house. — The Expositor
Source: http://www.kanemiller.com/book.asp?sku=25
Downloaded: 13 July 2008
Other books for young children on this and related topics include these titles:
Where’s the Poop? by Julie Markes
The Truth About Poop by Susan E. Goodman
The Product Description of Where’s the Poop says this:
With the aid of this playful book, your child will see that he or she has a place to poop, too. While reinforcing the concept of toilet training, Where’s the Poop? gives children the confidence they need. This engaging lift-the-flap book shows children that all creatures have a place to poop: tigers in the jungle, kangaroos in the outback, and monkeys in the rain forest.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/nao7y9u
Downloaded: 13 July 2008
In Athens, Ohio, a couple of people put on a puppet show for young children. The puppets represented children with handicaps. For example, one puppet represented a child in a wheelchair. Part of the program was a question-and-answer period in which the children in the audience could ask the puppets questions. One little girl in the audience asked the puppet in the wheelchair, How do you go to the bathroom?
The father of a friend of mine worked at IBM. This embarrassed his daughter, who thought of IBM as forming a sentence: I BM — that is, I have a Bowel Movement.
• On page 4 of the published version of this essay, we read about a Jewish meat-and-carrot stew
and a purple-and-orange-striped BM.
What rule for using hyphens is being followed in those phrases?
When you put two or more words together to create an adjective that appears before the noun it modifies, connect the words together with hyphens.
• What is the reaction of the Sleator parents to the BM game?
The Sleator parents are in the front seat of the car while Billy and Vicky play the BM game. They must hear Billy and Vicky playing the game in the back seat, but they don’t stop the game. Mr. and Mrs. Sleator are oddballs, just like their children, and by not stopping the game, they are encouraging their children to be original.
• In the online version of this essay, how does another mother react when her child plays the BM game?
In the online version of the essay, we read:
Once we made the mistake of playing this game with our friend Albert when his mother was within earshot in the front seat. Albert began a spectacular tale about his very special transformation from a Matzoh ball inside the bowels of Superman. We never heard the end of the story, and it was years before Albert rode in the car with us again.
This kind of reaction is likely to stifle imagination, unfortunately.
• How can parents encourage their children to be creative?
Some parents encourage their children to be creative. One child’s parents allowed him to paint cartoon characters on the family garage, which was located in the back yard. His parents knew that the neighbors would not be able to see the garage and so would not worry about their property value being lowered.
Another set of parents who were wealthy and had lots of room allowed their child to draw in a room set aside for that purpose. By draw,
I mean draw on the walls. Once in a while, the parents would have the room painted white so that their son would have a clear space to draw on.
Parents do have to set boundaries to keep their children safe, but the boundaries need to be big enough to allow their children enough freedom to be creative. Unfortunately, parents can be overprotective.
The parents of Jenna Iszauk, who was one of my students, were not overprotective, but they did set boundaries. When Jenna was very young, her family went on vacation where they met a friendly Southern woman who asked Jenna her name. Of course, Jenna answered, Jenna,
but the Southern lady wanted Jenna’s full name, so Jenna answered,