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Maine Sampler Part I

Cookcamp by Gary Paulsen

.Orchard Books, 1991

Summary: During World War II, a little boy is sent to live with his grandmother, a cook in a camp for workers building a road through the wilderness.

Level: RL: 4 IL: 4-8

Themes:

  • love;
  • war effects on families at home;
  • generations.

Activities:

1. In your reading log, write down some possible reasons that Gary Paulsen left the boy unnamed. (All of the other characters have names.) Does this change the way you visualize the boy in the story? Why or why not?

2. Discuss in a small group the division of the book into three parts: a prologue; fourteen chapters and portrait. Compare this structure in your journal to other books you've read recently. How do you think the boy in the story is related to Paulsen? Research Paulsen's family heritage and find out some places where he has lived.

3. The book is dedicated to the memory of his grandmother, who very likely told stories of her life during World War II. Ask a grandmother, grandfather, older relative or a neighbor about their experiences from the past. How were their lives affected by major historical events? Write a story that incorporates what they have told you. If you have family photographs, these could be used to illustrate the story. Optional: Research your family tree.

4. The men in the camp were building a road that led into Canada. It was being built because of the war, but they seemed to think it was a dumb idea. Why do you think the road was being built? Research for more information about why this, and possibly other roads were built during World War II.

5. (If read aloud:) Use the attached resource list or select your own, read another book about children who were sent away from their homes during a war. Make a class chart about the circumstances under which they had to leave, hoe they felt about the move, and how their lives were changed by the different environments.

6. After watching his grandmother make apple pies, the boy asks her how so many different things that aren't all good ingredients can be put together to make something very good. Discuss in a small group how the boy's thought might relate to the story. Find a good apple pie recipe and make it in class.

7. As a class, brainstorm a project that would share this story. Incorporate ways to articulate the significance of SIZE: the little boy and the large trucks, big men with big smells, and huge clothes. Each group chooses one method and works through to completion.

8. The Cookcamp begins with a journey. List all the clues about the where abouts of the camp and the boy's home. Using an atlas, find some possible locations. Make a map of one of these to illustrate the book. Include the cookcamp and the road north. Do trains run through any of these places? (This kind of map can found in some atlases or in some history books.)

map of the northern Mid-West Resources

Anderson, Margaret J. Searching for Shona. Scholastic, 1978.
Too girls from different backgrounds switch identities as they are relocated from England during World War II.

Bawden Nina. Carrie's War. Lippincott, 1973.
Carrie and her younger brother spend WW II as evacuees in a small Welsh village where Carrie, upset by a family feud, commits an act which haunts her for 30 years.

Garrique, Sheila. The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito. Bradbury, 1985.
Sent from England to Vancouver to live with relatives early in World War II, Sarah forms a special friendship with Mr. Ito, the Japanese Gardener. After Pearl Harbor and the internment of Japanese- Canadians, Mr. Ito's centuries old bonzai-tree falls to Sara's care and gives her the determination to act on a courageous plan.

Burch, Robert. Hut School and the Wartime Home-front Heroes. Viking. 1974.
World War II was an inconvenience to Kate and her fellow 6th graders in a small Georgia town. They were forced to leave their regular school building because it was too crowded, and they attended classes in an old cabin.

Magorian, Michelle. Good Night, Mr. Tom. Harper and Row. 1981.
A battered child learns to embrace life when he is adopted by an old man in the English countryside during World War II. Jr. High and up.

Uchida, Yoshiko. Journey to Topaz. Scribner, 1971.
After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Yuki and her family along with other Japanese Americans are placed in evacuation camps where they must learn to lead different lives.

---- Journey Home. Atheneum. 1978.
Eager to forget their experiences in the Utah internment camp Topaz, the Sakane family returns to California where 12-year old Yuki waits for her wounded GI brother to come home from Europe.

Prepared by Cindy Jennings and Gail Garthwait