Henry Holt, 1998
Audio Bookshelf, 1999

Summary: Brent, an 'outsider' high schooler, accidently kills a young woman as he drives suicidally following alcohol-related bout of self-pity. Burdened by guilt and remorse, he agrees to her mother's reparation request at a victim's rights confrontation. Embarking on that pilgrimage, Brent gradually grows and heals. The four whirligigs left in his wake affect others imaginatively. The plot is handled in a unique, non-linear manner. 133 pithy pages.

Themes:

popularity/self-image/appearances/status
death/suicide
juvenile justice/reconciliation/reparation/victim's rights

Activities:

1. Pre-reading Discussion: Most youngsters can recall being responsible (or hearing about someone responsible) for a "disaster" or "crisis" because they didn't take into account the impact of their behavior. Loosening the brakes on a car to play 'drive'. Throwing a water-filled balloon that breaks the victim's glasses and scars his eye. Youngsters can discuss which results could have been prevented by forethought, and which resulted from ignorance, innocence, or misplaced guilt.

They can also recall personal instances of juvenile justice. It could involve "making up" for the results of 'wrong' behavior. It could have included victim's rights or confrontation, such as being marched back to the supermarket to personally apologize to the store manager and hand over the purloined package of gum. Sometimes it is remembered as injustice, over-reaction, or unrelated to the 'crime'.

There are two sides to the behavior coin. Actions can also impact others' lives positively and pervasively. Students can explore the impact of their own positive behavior as well as the lasting effect of another's behavior toward them.

Using this discussion as a foundation, students may record in their Whirligig reading journal instances of behaviors with either positive or negative effects. These will provide a basis for a post-reading discussion.

Note: The following picture book read-alouds can provide a similar foundation for exploring the above concepts within Whirligig. If there is no pre-reading discussion, these ideas can be modified into student activities.

Berry, Joy. Disobeying. Grolier, 1988. Opens up the intent of punishment. Should it be dealt to make the perpetrator feel bad?

Ibid. Being Destructive. Grolier, 1988. Easier to have the punishment relate directly to the crime. Fix, replace, do without.

Bunting, Eve. A Day's Work. Clarion, 1994. Francisco lies to get his grandfather a day labor job. When the lie backfires, his grandfather makes up for the problem, which costs both of them planned pleasure time, but shows Francisco better approaches and concepts of respect.

Havill, Juanita. Jamaica's Find. Houghton Mifflin, 1986. Guilt and a little help to initiate returning a 'lost' toy.

Ness, Evaline. Sam, Bangs & Moonshine. Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, 1966. Fantastical teasing unwittingly leads to danger to others. Sam works on separating imagining from misleading, as well as initiating a relevant 'makeup'.

Polacco, Patricia. Just Plain Fancy. Bantam, 1990. Naomi feels guilty when her unusual hatched bird fulfills her wish for something non-Amish plain. She is finally relieved by her elders of that blame.

Sharmat, Marjorie. A Big Fat Enormous Lie. Puffin 1978. Getting stuck with a lie gets too weighty, and confession is a relief. Parents plan to 'discuss'. A discussion about the unrevealed punishment might yield a continuum of relevant to merely punitive reactions.

3. Brent's reparation task is to create four whirligigs. Write a complete description of how Brent learns to make and how he learns to improve his whirligigs. Make it sequential.

Start with what he "knows" about whirligigs. Include each specific source and resource that he uses. Now look over the description. What other resources could he have used that would have been helpful or that would have saved him time?

Now write a paragraph describing Brent's research process in general.

3.a. Did you ever read a book with a more complicated plot? Most stories have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Somewhere in the middle they have a "climax," followed by related events leading to the end. Usually this is written sequentially, as the story might have happened. Once in a while an author uses a device called a "flashback," inserting something out of sequence that happened in the past. Paul Fleischman re-organizes his plots into much more complicated formats.

Begin your activity by making a sequential list or chart of the plot. How will you identify the climax?

Now rearrange the sequential list by how the author actually presented the plot. How could you create a chart that shows not only how the author presented the plot, but also how each part relates to the sequential plot? This activity works best when several readers create charts, and then compare and discuss them in a small or large group. Include in your discussion WHY you think the author decided on such a complex presentation?

3.b. Read Seedfolks, another recent book by Paul Fleischman, and follow the same directions as 3a. (Or substitute another book with an unusual plot format as recommended/approved by your teacher or librarian.) A discussion comparing all the plot strategies and possible reasons should reveal some rich, creative options for future student writing.

4. Prepare a group presentation about whirligigs. Guide yourselves by a set of criteria, which should include the following:

• Clear "whirligig" definition and demonstration.
• A comprehensive history of whirligigs accompanied by graphic examples.
• Lifesize portraits of Brent's four whirligigs.
• The portraits reflect the concrete descriptions in the novel accurately.
• The portraits reflect the emotional and symbolic impact felt by viewers.
• Extensive quotes are used to support both aspects of the portraits.
• Other criteria or rubrics developed by teachers with or without group

5. Make a whirligig. Easier said than done, as Brent discovered. A number of activities may be found at http://www.smm.org/sln/vollis/trythese/trythese.html [Note: this activity uses a candle's flame to test the finished product. A small, battery-operated fan would be a safer tester.] Other resources:

Lunde, Anders S. Whirligig: Design and Construction. Mother Earth News, 1983.

Schoonmaker, David, & Woods, Bruce. Whirligigs & Weathervanes: A Celebration of Wind Gadgets With Dozens of Creative Projects to Make. Lark, 1992.

Wiley, Jack. Whirligig Book: How to Make Action Mechanical Whirligigs. Solipaz, 1990.

Assess your finished product as to functionality and visual appeal. Also, what was your greatest strength and your greatest weakness in this endeavor? If you were to make another one, what changes would you make in your materials, your tools, your design, your technique?

6. Brent's mission requires him to travel extensively to accomplish his goal as well as Leo's mother's goal. List these goals. Now chart Brent's journey on a large U.S. map, including directional aids and identification of stops.

Write a descriptive page for each stop. Reflect on the missions as well as any other significance of that stop in Brent's life. As you move to the next stops you will recognize "threads" strung throughout the journey that might not have been so apparent before. Go back and add instances of these threads. When you get full circle back to Chicago, write how these threads accumulated or developed and the impact each had on Brent. Affix the pages to the four corners of the map with the final page above Chicago. Display on a bulletin board.

7. Replicate #4 with another "pilgrimage" story. Then compare the concrete and abstract goals and results with Whirligig. Chart the sequence of the plots and compare similarities and differences.

Peck, Richard, A Long Way from Chicago. Dial, 1998.

Homer, The Odyssey

Creech, Sharon. Walk Two Moons. HarperCollins, 1994.

Some of these Whirligig activities were published in the Winter 2000 edition of Maine Entry.

By Audrey Conant
Chair, Information Literacy
Maine Association of School Librarians

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