Title: Afterworlds
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Copyright: September 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-48142-234-5
Dewey Decimal Number: FIC WES
Reading range: grades 9-12
Booktalk:
Afterworlds is not your average teen novel, but instead, is two books in one. The odd numbered chapters chronicle Darcy’s life--she publishes a YA book while still in high school, convinces her parents to let her postpone college, and moves to New York to make her living as a writer. In these chapters, she struggles to be independent for the first time, living alone with new adult responsibilities. While in New York, Darcy rewrites her novel, is taken under the wing of more experienced writers, and falls in love. The even numbered chapters, however, contain the text of Darcy’s book, entitled Afterworlds. This story is about a teenage girl named Lizzie, who escapes a terrorist attack by playing dead so realistically that she becomes a psychopomp--someone who is able to see ghosts and guide them to their ultimate destination. Like Darcy, Lizzie falls in love and comes of age, but does so in the paranormal setting of Afterworlds, and the changes Darcy experiences are reflected in Lizzie’s narrative. Author Scott Westerfeld wants readers to see these books not as opposed to but instead as talking to one another. Part satire and critique of the YA book publishing industry, part love and coming of age story, and part supernatural thriller, Afterworlds is a smart read with something to offer everyone.
Ways the book can be used in lessons, with standards, or in the classroom, or other reasons you connected with the book:
I have read several other titles in the Uglies series written by Scott Westerfeld and was asked by my principal to read Afterworlds to prepare for Scott Westerfeld's upcoming author visit at my school. It took me a while to get used to the sequence of alternating chapters, and I could see students being confused in the opening chapters; it would be easy to think that Chapter 2 is about Darcy, not Lizzie. However, I believe having read the book that Westerfeld does this intentionally--the book is actually a smart satire. This book would be best used in classroom lending library or in the school library as an independent reading book, and selections from it could be used in ELA lessons or units about satire.
Common Core standards:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
Author: Scott Westerfeld
Copyright: September 23, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-48142-234-5
Dewey Decimal Number: FIC WES
Reading range: grades 9-12
Booktalk:
Afterworlds is not your average teen novel, but instead, is two books in one. The odd numbered chapters chronicle Darcy’s life--she publishes a YA book while still in high school, convinces her parents to let her postpone college, and moves to New York to make her living as a writer. In these chapters, she struggles to be independent for the first time, living alone with new adult responsibilities. While in New York, Darcy rewrites her novel, is taken under the wing of more experienced writers, and falls in love. The even numbered chapters, however, contain the text of Darcy’s book, entitled Afterworlds. This story is about a teenage girl named Lizzie, who escapes a terrorist attack by playing dead so realistically that she becomes a psychopomp--someone who is able to see ghosts and guide them to their ultimate destination. Like Darcy, Lizzie falls in love and comes of age, but does so in the paranormal setting of Afterworlds, and the changes Darcy experiences are reflected in Lizzie’s narrative. Author Scott Westerfeld wants readers to see these books not as opposed to but instead as talking to one another. Part satire and critique of the YA book publishing industry, part love and coming of age story, and part supernatural thriller, Afterworlds is a smart read with something to offer everyone.
Ways the book can be used in lessons, with standards, or in the classroom, or other reasons you connected with the book:
I have read several other titles in the Uglies series written by Scott Westerfeld and was asked by my principal to read Afterworlds to prepare for Scott Westerfeld's upcoming author visit at my school. It took me a while to get used to the sequence of alternating chapters, and I could see students being confused in the opening chapters; it would be easy to think that Chapter 2 is about Darcy, not Lizzie. However, I believe having read the book that Westerfeld does this intentionally--the book is actually a smart satire. This book would be best used in classroom lending library or in the school library as an independent reading book, and selections from it could be used in ELA lessons or units about satire.
Common Core standards:
Key Ideas and Details:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.2
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.3
Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.
Craft and Structure:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.4
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5
Analyze how an author's choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.6
Analyze a particular point of view or cultural experience reflected in a work of literature from outside the United States, drawing on a wide reading of world literature.
Range of Reading and Level of Text Complexity:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.10
By the end of grade 9, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, in the grades 9-10 text complexity band proficiently, with scaffolding as needed at the high end of the range.
By the end of grade 10, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poems, at the high end of the grades 9-10 text complexity band independently and proficiently.
Research to Build and Present Knowledge:
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.