SOURCE: THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER & KLAY / MICHAEL CHABON DISCOVERED BY THE LAST READERS: 03 / 03 / 2045 2 3 It was at these times that he began to understand, after all those years of study and performance, of feats and wonders and surprises, the nature of magic. The magician seemed to promise that something torn to bits might be mended without a seam, that what had vanished might reappear, that a scattered handful of doves or dust might be reunited by a word, that a paper rose consumed by fire could be made to bloom from a pile of ash. But everyone knew that it was only an illusion. The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of the things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place. 1 4
READ LIKE A REBEL 1. What clues does sentence 1 provide about the character referred to as he? 2. How many images are in sentence 2? How are they similar? Why might the author have chosen to string them together instead of focusing on one? 3. What does this text suggest the difference is between magic and illusion? 4. Where is the emotional high point in the text? Where is the low point? What does this suggest about the character? JOIN THE REBELLION AT AMPLIFY.COM/CLOSEREADING
SOURCE: THE MAZE RUNNER / JAMES DASHNER DISCOVERED BY THE LAST READERS: 08 / 11 / 2121 He began his new life standing up, surrounded by cold darkness and stale, dusty air. 2 4 6 Metal ground against metal; a lurching shudder shook the floor beneath him. He fell down at the sudden movement and shuffled backward on his hands and feet, drops of sweat beading on his forehead despite the cool air. His back struck a hard metal wall; he slid along it until he hit the corner of the room. Sinking to the floor, he pulled his legs up tight against his body, hoping his eyes would soon adjust to the darkness. With another jolt, the room jerked upward like an old lift in a mine shaft. 1 3 5
READ LIKE A REBEL 1. What can you infer about the he in sentence 1? Where do you find evidence for your inferences? 2. What do the descriptions reveal about the setting? 3. Why does the author end sentence 3 with despite the cool air? What does this sentence reveal about the character s present state? 4. What mood does this passage evoke? Which words and phrases create this mood? JOIN THE REBELLION AT AMPLIFY.COM/CLOSEREADING
SOURCE: THE LORD OF THE RINGS / J.R.R. TOLKIEN DISCOVERED BY THE LAST READERS: 12 / 24 / 2086 2 4 6 The brave things in the old tales and songs, Mr. Frodo, adventures, as I used to call them. I used to think that they were things the wonderful folk of the stories went out and looked for, because they wanted them, because they were exciting and life was a bit dull, a kind of a sport, as you might say. But that s not the way of it with the tales that really mattered, or the ones that stay in the mind. Folk seem to have been just landed in them, usually their paths were laid that way, as you put it. But I expect they had lots of chances, like us, of turning back, only they didn t. And if they had, we shouldn t know, because they d have been forgotten. 1 3 5
READ LIKE A REBEL 1. What can you infer about the speaker of the passage? 2. What can you infer about who the speaker is addressing? 3. What does each of the words they and them in sentence 2 refer to? 4. What do you think the speaker means by the tales that really mattered (3)? 5. How does the speaker s understanding of adventures change from the beginning of the passage to the end? JOIN THE REBELLION AT AMPLIFY.COM/CLOSEREADING
SOURCE: THE REVOLT OF THE MASSES / JOSE ORTEGA Y GASSET DISCOVERED BY THE LAST READERS: 03 / 11 / 2081 2 4 6 As they say in the United States: to be different is to be indecent. The mass crushes beneath it everything that is different, everything that is excellent, individual, qualified and select. Anybody who is not like everybody, who does not think like everybody, runs the risk of being eliminated. And it is clear, of course, that this everybody is not everybody. Everybody was normally the complex unity of the mass and the divergent, specialised minorities. Nowadays, everybody is the mass alone. Here we have the formidable fact of our times, described without any concealment of the brutality of its features." 1 3 5 7
READ LIKE A REBEL 1. What does the speaker mean by the mass (2)? How can you tell? 2. Does the mass consider different a positive or negative description? How can you tell? 3. Does the speaker agree or disagree with the mass? Where do you see evidence to support your answer? 4. What does the speaker mean by everybody is not everybody (4)? 5. How does the author feel about our times (7)? JOIN THE REBELLION AT AMPLIFY.COM/CLOSEREADING
SOURCE: SISTER OUTSIDER / AUDRE LORDE DISCOVERED BY THE LAST READERS: 07 / 05 / 2123 Next time, ask: What's the worst that will 2 4 5 happen? Then push yourself a little further than you dare. Once you start to speak, 3 people will yell at you. They will interrupt you, put you down and suggest it's personal. And the world won't end. And the speaking will get easier and easier. 7 1 6 And you will find you have fallen in love with your own vision, which you may never have realized you had. And you will lose 8 some friends and lovers, and realize you 9 don't miss them. And new ones will find you and cherish you. And you will still flirt and paint your nails, dress up and party, because, as I think Emma Goldman said, "If I can't dance, I don't want to be part of your revolution." And at last you'll know with 11 surpassing certainty that only one thing is more frightening than speaking your truth. And that is not speaking. 10
READ LIKE A REBEL 1. What does paragraph 1 suggest about the speaker, the listener, and the situation they re discussing? 2. How would you summarize the speaker s claim? 3. Why does the speaker include sentences 4 and 5? How do they relate to her claim? 4. How many sentences begin with the word And? Why might the author have chosen to structure so many sentences this way? 5. What feeling(s) is this passage meant to evoke in the listener? How can you tell? JOIN THE REBELLION AT AMPLIFY.COM/CLOSEREADING