How Long Could YOU Keep From Talking?

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:12:00 GMT

Dave was normally a pretty noisy 5th-grader. In fact, maybe he was a loudmouth. But after reading about Gandhi, and how for many years he spent one day a week not talking at all, Dave thought it was worth finding out what it would be like to keep silent. After about a half day of trying silence on his own, he and Lynsey took up a dare to make silence a contest between the 5th grade boys and the 5th grade girls. They set the time limit of 2 entire days. Exceptions were only that they were allowed to respond to a teacher with a 3-word answer. Any more words counted as points for the other side.

What happened to the teachers when the lunch room was entirely silent? How did they manage in their classes?
Who won? And how DID it feel to keep mostly silent for all that time?

Andrew Clements has come up with another unique situation for his characters in No Talking.

Do you think you could keep silent for even one entire day?

Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour

UndergroundLibrarian@evpl — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:16:00 GMT

How does a kid feel when the electricity goes out in the middle of the night and he can't find anyone but his dog? That's what happens to the boy in Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour by Eve Bunting. Donald Carrick's pictures are very realistic as boy and dog open a creaky bedroom door and look for his parents in an empty but still-warm bed. The clock strikes 12. "Ghost's hour, spook's hour, " he says. It's a perfect atmospheric story with a happy ending. Not in the Halloween collection, but good for this time of year!

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How Long Could YOU Keep From Talking?

Ghost's Hour, Spook's Hour