English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
The Book Thief: How is literacy powerful in times of
crisis, trauma, or development?
OVERVIEW: In Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief, reading and writing play a pivotal role in
the lives of several characters: Liesel Meminger, Hans Hubermann, Max Vandenburg, Ilsa
Hermann, and Frau Holtzapfel. While these characters may differ in many ways, books touch
their lives in a distinctive manner. In this document-based question, you will take a close look
at how literacy can offer an escape, provide comfort, spur imagination, and empower those
bearing overwhelming burden.
DIRECTIONS: Carefully read the following documents, including the boxed information at the
top of each source. Then synthesize (combine) information from at least 3 of the documents
and incorporate it into a coherent, well-developed essay that argues a clear position on how
literacy is powerful in times of crisis, trauma, or development. Make sure your argument is
central; use the documents to illustrate and support your reasoning. Avoid merely
summarizing the sources. Indicate clearly which documents you are drawing from, whether
through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. Cite the documents as Doc A, Doc B, etc.
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English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENTS:
Document A: “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie (essay)
Document B: “Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass (essay)
Document C: The Lost Art of Reading, excerpts, by David Ulin (book)
Document D: “A Sweet Devouring” by Eudora Welty (essay)
Document E: “An Atlas of the Difficult World” by Adrienne Rich (poem)
Document F: “Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things” by Naomi Shihab Nye
(poem)
Document G: “Young Lincoln” by Norman Rockwell (painting)
Document H: “The Bed Time Story” by Seymour Joseph Guy (painting)
Document I: “The Window Seat” by William Orpen (painting)
Document J: “Literacy” by Steve Greenberg (editorial cartoon)
Document K: “Jim Crowe Must Go!” by Henry A. Wallace (campaign poster)
PURPOSES:
•
•
•
•
To engage students with rigorous college-preparatory curricula focused on the skills
necessary for successful college participation.
To extend students’ abilities to synthesize information from multiple perspectives and
apply skills in new situations and cross-genre contexts.
To enable students to analyze information with accuracy and precision.
To cultivate students’ abilities to craft, communicate, and defend evidence-based
arguments.
STEPS:
1. Question and Explore: Think about the question and its surrounding issues and
perspectives.
2. Understand and Analyze Arguments: Read and evaluate the source material. Write on
it; summarize it in your own words. Reread it. Think about it some more.
3. Synthesize Ideas: Organize documents into groups, making intentional, reasonable,
and purposeful choices. Be able to explain and justify.
4. Craft your Argument: Formulate your well-reasoned argument that conveys your
perspective on the question. Determine which documents to include and how they will
be used. Write a clear and complete thesis.
5. Write your Response. Follow the Classical Model format for your essay. Keep your tone
consistent. Refer to templates for sentence writing.
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English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT A
Born in 1966 and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington,
Sherman Alexie is one of the foremost Native American writers. He is best known for his
fiction, from his first collection of stories, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
(1993), and the young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
(2007). This essay appears in 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology edited by Samuel
Cohen.
The Joy of Reading and Writing: “Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
I learned to read with a Superman comic book. Simple enough, I suppose. I cannot recall which particular Superman
comic book I read, nor can I remember which villain he fought in that issue. I cannot remember the plot, nor the
means by which I obtained the comic book. What I can remember is this: I was 3 years old, a Spokane Indian boy
living with his family on the Spokane Indian Reservation in eastern Washington state. We were poor by most
standards, but one of my parents usually managed to find some minimum-wage job or another, which made us
middle-class by reservation standards. I had a brother and three sisters. We lived on a combination of irregular
paychecks, hope, fear and government surplus food.
My father, who is one of the few Indians who went to Catholic school on purpose, was an avid reader of westerns,
spy thrillers, murder mysteries, gangster epics, basketball player biographies and anything else he could find. He
bought his books by the pound at Dutch’s Pawn Shop, Goodwill, Salvation Army and Value Village. When he had
extra money, he bought new novels at supermarkets, convenience stores and hospital gift shops. Our house was
filled with books. They were stacked in crazy piles in the bathroom, bedrooms and living room. In a fit of
unemployment-inspired creative energy, my father built a set of bookshelves and soon filled them with a random
assortment of books about the Kennedy assassination, Watergate, the Vietnam War and the entire 23-book series of
the Apache westerns. My father loved books, and since I loved my father with an aching devotion, I decided to love
books as well.
I can remember picking up my father’s books before I could read. The words themselves were mostly foreign, but I
still remember the exact moment when I first understood, with a sudden clarity, the purpose of a paragraph. I didn’t
have the vocabulary to say “paragraph,” but I realized that a paragraph was a fence that held words. The words
inside a paragraph worked together for a common purpose. They had some specific reason for being inside the same
fence. This knowledge delighted me. I began to think of everything in terms of paragraphs. Our reservation was a
small paragraph within the United States. My family’s house was a paragraph, distinct from the other paragraphs of
the LeBrets to the north, the Fords to our south and the Tribal School to the west. Inside our house, each family
member existed as a separate paragraph but still had genetics and common experiences to link us. Now, using this
logic, I can see my changed family as an essay of seven paragraphs: mother, father, older brother, the deceased
sister, my younger twin sisters and our adopted little brother.
At the same time I was seeing the world in paragraphs, I also picked up that Superman comic book. Each panel,
complete with picture, dialogue and narrative was a three-dimensional paragraph. In one panel, Superman breaks
through a door. His suit is red, blue and yellow. The brown door shatters into many pieces. I look at the narrative
above the picture. I cannot read the words, but I assume it tells me that “Superman is breaking down the door.”
Aloud, I pretend to read the words and say, “Superman is breaking down the door.” Words, dialogue, also float out of
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English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
Superman’s mouth. Because he is breaking down the door, I assume he says, “I am breaking down the door.” Once
again, I pretend to read the words and say aloud, “I am breaking down the door” In this way, I learned to read.
This might be an interesting story all by itself. A little Indian boy teaches himself to read at an early age and advances
quickly. He reads “Grapes of Wrath” in kindergarten when other children are struggling through “Dick and Jane.” If
he’d been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an
Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity. He grows into a man who often speaks of his childhood
in the third-person, as if it will somehow dull the pain and make him sound more modest about his talents.
A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. I fought with my
classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for
volunteers, for help. We were Indian children who were expected to be stupid. Most lived up to those expectations
inside the classroom but subverted them on the outside. They struggled with basic reading in school but could
remember how to sing a few dozen powwow songs. They were monosyllabic in front of their non-Indian teachers but
could tell complicated stories and jokes at the dinner table. They submissively ducked their heads when confronted
by a non-Indian adult but would slug it out with the Indian bully who was 10 years older. As Indian children, we were
expected to fail in the non-Indian world. Those who failed were ceremonially accepted by other Indians and
appropriately pitied by non-Indians.
I refused to fail. I was smart. I was arrogant. I was lucky. I read books late into the night, until I could barely keep my
eyes open. I read books at recess, then during lunch, and in the few minutes left after I had finished my classroom
assignments. I read books in the car when my family traveled to powwows or basketball games. In shopping malls, I
ran to the bookstores and read bits and pieces of as many books as I could. I read the books my father brought home
from the pawnshops and secondhand. I read the books I borrowed from the library. I read the backs of cereal boxes.
I read the newspaper. I read the bulletins posted on the walls of the school, the clinic, the tribal offices, the post
office. I read junk mail. I read auto-repair manuals. I read magazines. I read anything that had words and paragraphs.
I read with equal parts joy and desperation. I loved those books, but I also knew that love had only one purpose. I
was trying to save my life.
Despite all the books I read, I am still surprised I became a writer. I was going to be a pediatrician. These days, I
write novels, short stories, and poems. I visit schools and teach creative writing to Indian kids. In all my years in the
reservation school system, I was never taught how to write poetry, short stories or novels. I was certainly never
taught that Indians wrote poetry, short stories and novels. Writing was something beyond Indians. I cannot recall a
single time that a guest teacher visited the reservation. There must have been visiting teachers. Who were they?
Where are they now? Do they exist? I visit the schools as often as possible. The Indian kids crowd the classroom.
Many are writing their own poems, short stories and novels. They have read my books. They have read many other
books. They look at me with bright eyes and arrogant wonder. They are trying to save their lives. Then there are the
sullen and already defeated Indian kids who sit in the back rows and ignore me with theatrical precision. The pages
of their notebooks are empty. They carry neither pencil nor pen. They stare out the window. They refuse and resist.
“Books,” I say to them. “Books,” I say. I throw my weight against their locked doors. The door holds. I am smart. I am
arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.
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English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT B
Frederick Douglass was born a slave in 1818 in Maryland. He learned to read and write,
escaped to New York, and became a leader in the abolitionist movement. He engaged in
speaking tours and edited North Star, a newspaper named for the one guide escaping
southern slaves could rely on to find their way to freedom. Douglass is best known for
his autobiography, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), from which
“Learning to Read and Write” is excerpted. This essay appears in 50 Essays: A Portable
Anthology edited by Samuel Cohen.
“Learning to Read and Write” by Frederick Douglass
The
first
step
had
been
taken.
Mistress, in
teaching
me
the
alphabet, had
given
me
the
inch, and
no
precaution
could
prevent
me
from
taking
the
ell.
The
plan
which
I
adopted,
and
the
one
by
which
I
was
most
successful,
was
that
of
making
friends
of
all
the
little
white
boys
whom
I
met
in
the
street.
As
many
of
these
as
I
could,
I
converted
into
teachers.
With
their
kindly
aid,
obtained
at
different
times
and
in
different
places,
I
finally
succeeded
in
learning
to
read.
When
I
was
sent
to
errands,
I
always
took
my
book
with
me,
and
by
doing
one
part
of
my
errand
quickly,
I
found
time
to
get
a
lesson
before
my
return.
I
used
also
to
carry
bread
with
me,
enough
of
which
was
always
in
the
house,
and
to
which
I
was
always
welcome;
for
I
was
much
better
off
in
this
regard
than
many
of
the
poor
white
children
in
our
neighborhood.
This
bread
I
used
to
bestow
upon
the
hungry
little
urchins,
who,
in
return,
would
give
me
that
more
valuable
bread
of
knowledge.
I
am
strongly
tempted
to
give
the
names
of
two
or
three
of
those
little
boys,
as
a
testimonial
of
the
gratitude
and
affection
I
bear
them;
but
prudence
forbids‐not
that
it
would
injure
me,
-
but
it
might
embarrass
them;
for
it
is
almost
an
unpardonable
offense
to
teach
slaves
to
read
in
this
Christian
country.
It
is
enough
to
say
of
the
dear
little
fellows,
that
they
lived
on
Philpot
Street,
very
near
Durgin
and
Bailey's
shipyard.
I
used
to
talk
this
matter
of
slavery
over
with
them.
I
would
sometimes
say
to
them,
I
wished
I
could
be
as
free
as
they
would
be
when
they
got
to
be
men.
"You
will
be
free
as
soon
as
you
are
twenty‐
one,
but
I
am
a
slave
for
life!
Have
not
I
as
good
a
right
to
be
free
as
you
have?"
These
words
used
to
trouble
them;
they
would
express
for
me
the
liveliest
sympathy,
and
console
me
with
the
hope
that
something
would
occur
by
which
I
might
be
free.
I
was
now
about
twelve‐years‐old, and
the
thought
of
being
a
slave
for
life
began
to
bear
heavily
upon
my
heart.
Just
about
this
time,
I
got
hold
of
a
book
entitled
"The
Columbian
Orator."
Every
opportunity I
got,
I
used
to
read
this
book.
Among
much
of
other
interesting
matter,
I
found
in
it
a
dialogue
between
a
master
and
his
slave.
The
slave
was
represented
as
having
run
away
from
his
master
three
times.
The
dialogue
represented
the
conversation
which
took
place
between
them,
when
the
slave
was
retaken
the
third
time.
In
this
dialogue,
the
whole
argument
in
behalf
of
slavery
was
brought
forward
by
the
master,
all
of
which
was
disposed
of
by
the
slave.
The
slave
was
made
to
say
some
very
smart
as
well
as
impressive
things
in
reply
to
his
master ‐ things
which
had
the
desired
though
5
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
unexpected
effect;
for
the
conversation
resulted
in
the
voluntary
emancipation
of
the
slave
on
the
part
of
the
master.
In
the
same
book,
I
met
with
one
of
Sheridan's
mighty
speeches
on
and
in
behalf
of
Catholic
emancipation.
These
were
choice
documents
to
me.
I
read
them
over
and
over
again
with
unabated
interest.
They
gave
tongue
to
interesting
thoughts
of
my
own
soul,
which
had
frequently
flashed
through
my
mind,
and
died
away
for
want
of
utterance.
The
moral
which
I
gained
from
the
dialogue
was the
power
of
truth
over
the
conscience
of
even
a
slaveholder.
What
I
got
from
Sheridan
was
a
bold
denunciation
of
slavery,
and
a
powerful
vindication
of
human
rights.
The
reading
of
these
documents
enabled
me
to
utter
my
thoughts,
and
to
meet
the
arguments
brought
forward
to
sustain
slavery;
but
while
they
relieved
me
of
one
difficulty,
they
brought
on
another
even
more
painful
than
the
one
of
which
I
was
relieved.
The
more
I
read,
the
more
I
was
led
to
abhor
and
detest
my
enslavers.
I
could
regard
them
in
no
other
light
than
a
band
of
successful
robbers,
who
had
left
their
homes,
and
gone
to
Africa,
and
stolen
us
from
our
homes,
and
in
a
strange
land
reduced
us
to
slavery.
I
loathed
them
as
being
the
meanest
as
well
as
the
most
wicked
of
men.
As
I
read
and
contemplated
the
subject,
behold
that
very
discontentment
which
Master
Hugh
had
predicted
would
follow
my
learning
to
read
had
already
come,
to
torment
and
sting
my
soul
to
unutterable
anguish.
As
I
writhed
under
it,
I
would
at
times
feel
that
learning
to
read
had
been
a
curse
rather
than
a
blessing.
It
had
given
me
a
view
of
my
wretched
condition,
without
the
remedy.
It
opened
my
eyes
to
the
horrible
pit,
but
to
no
ladder
upon
which
to
get
out.
In
moments
of
agony,
I
envied
my
fellow‐slaves
for
their
stupidity.
I
have
often
wished
myself
a
beast.
I
preferred
the
condition
of
the
meanest
reptile
to
my
own.
Anything,
no
matter
what,
to
get
rid
of
thinking!
It
was
this
everlasting
thinking
of
my
condition
that
tormented
me.
There
was
no
getting
rid
of
it.
It
was
pressed
upon
me
by
every
object
within
sight
or
hearing,
animate
or
inanimate.
The
silver
trump
of
freedom
had
roused
my
soul
to
eternal
wakefulness.
Freedom
now
appeared,
to
disappear
no
more
forever.
It
was
heard
in
every
sound,
and
seen
in
every thing.
It
was
ever
present
to
torment
me
with
a
sense
of
my
wretched
condition.
I
saw
nothing
without
seeing
it,
I
heard
nothing
without
hearing
it,
and
felt
nothing
without
feeling
it.
It
looked
from
every
star,
it
smiled
in
every
calm,
breathed
in
every
wind,
and
moved
in
every
storm.
6
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT C
David Ulin is a book critic of the Los Angeles Times and the author or editor of several
books. Each paragraph below is a separate excerpt from his book.
The Lost Art of Reading: Why Books Matter in a Distracted Time by David Ulin
It is this, I think, that draws us to books in the first place, their nearly magical power to transport us to other
landscapes, other lives.
The key to think about reading as a journey of discovery, an excavation of the inner world. It doesn’t matter whose,
exactly – not yet, anyway. What’s important is to take the plunge.
Books are fundamentally about engagement, that they require a context, that they reflect a writer’s place, his or her
standing, a situation and a story.
Reading is an act of contemplation, perhaps the only act in which we allow ourselves to merge with the
consciousness of another human being. We possess the books we read, animating the waiting stillness of their
language, but they possess us also, filling us to make them part of ourselves. Books enlarge us by giving direct
access to experiences not our own.
This is what literature, at its best and most unrelenting, offers: a slicing through of all the noise and the ephemera, a
cutting to the chase. There is something thrilling about it, this unburdening, the idea of getting at a truth so profound
that, for a moment anyway, we become transcendent in the fullest sense. I’m not talking about posterity, which is its
own kind of fantasy, in which we regard books as tombstones instead of souls. No, I’m thinking more of literature as a
voice of pure expression, a cry in the dark. Its futility is what makes it noble: nothing will come of this, no one will be
saved, but it is worth your attention anyway.
This is what language, at its most acute, can do. It can collapse the distances, bring us into not just the thoughts but
also the perceptions of a writer, allows us, however fleetingly, to inhabit, literally, his or her own eyes. Sure, it’s an
illusion, a trick of ink and paper; sure, all literature, all art, is a construction, a creation, flawed and flimsy, at attempt
to rerender, in symbols, the substance of who we are.
E.L. Doctorow once said of the peculiar isolated intimacy of “writing in silence, reading in silence.” That, I think, is it
precisely: the tension, the balance, the sense of being somehow within the world and at the same time without it, the
push-and-pull between writer and reader, the unlikely process by which literature works.
If we frame every situation in terms of right and wrong, we never have to wrestle with complexity; if we define the
world in narrow bands of black and white, we don’t have to parse out endless shades of gray. This emerges in our
relationship with reading, maybe, most of all. Books, after all, have long been a source of consternation in the culture,
both from those who love them and from those who don’t.
Language is internal; it asks us to create our images, our movies, our realities from someone else’s words. This is the
source of its power, that it is interactive in the truest sense.
7
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT D
Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Eudora Welty is a highly respected writer of fiction. Most
of her work focuses on life in the South, particularly Mississippi, and captures the
essence of place through vivid descriptions. In 1972, she was awarded the Pulitzer
Prize for The Optimist’s Daughter. First published in Mademoiselle magazine in 1957,
it is excerpted here from The Best American Essays of the Century, edited by Joyce
Carol Oates.
“A Sweet Devouring” by Eudora Welty
When I was nine, my mother took me to the public library and introduced me: “Let her have any book she wants,
except Elsie Dinsmore.” I looked for the book I couldn’t have and it was a row. That was how I learned about the
Series Books. The Five Little Peppers belonged, so did The Wizard of Oz, so did The Little Colonel, so did The
Green Fairy Book. There was many of everything, generations of everybody, instead of one. I wasn’t coming to the
end of reading, after all – I was saved.
Our library in those days was a big rotunda lined with shelves. A copy of V.V.’s Eyes seemed to follow you wherever
you went, even after you’d read it. I didn’t know what I liked, I just knew what there was a lot of. After Randy’s Spring
there came Randy’s Summer, Randy’s Fall and Randy’s Winter. True, I didn’t care very much myself for her spring,
but it didn’t occur to me that I might not care for her summer, and then her summer didn’t prejudice me against her
fall, and I still had hopes as I moved on to her winter. I was disappointed in her whole year, as it turned out, but a
thing like that didn’t keep me from wanting to read every word of it. The pleasures of reading itself – who doesn’t
remember? – were like those of a Christmas cake, a sweet devouring. The “Randy Books” failed chiefly in being so
soon over. Four seasons doesn’t make a series.
All that summer I used to put on a second petticoat (our librarian wouldn’t let you past the front door if she could see
through you), ride my bicycle up the hill and “through the Capitol” (shortcut) to the library with my two read books in
the basket (two was the limit you could take out at one time when you were a child and also as long as you lived),
and tiptoe in (“Silence”) and exchange them for two more in two minutes. Selection was no object. I coasted the two
new books home, jumped out of my petticoat, read (I suppose I ate and bathed and answered questions put to me),
then in all hope put my petticoat back on and rode those two books back to the library to get my next two.
The librarian was the lady in town who wanted to be it. She called me by my full name and said, “Does your mother
know where you are? You know good and well the fixed rule of this library: Nobody is going to come running back
here with any book on the same day they took it out. Get both those things out of here and don’t come back till
tomorrow. And I can practically see through you.”
My great-aunt in Virginia, who understood better about needing more to read than you could read, sent me a book so
big it had to be read on the floor – a bound volume of six or eight issues of St. Nicholas from a previous year. In the
very first pages a serial began: The Lucky Stone by Abbie Farwell Brown. The illustrations were right down my alley:
a heroine so poor she was ragged, a witch with an extremely pointed hat, a rich, crusty old gentleman in – better than
a wheelchair – a runaway carriage; and I set to. I gobbled up installment after installment through the whole luxurious
book, through the last one, and then came the words, turning me to unlucky stone: “To be concluded.” The book had
come to an end and The Lucky Stone wasn’t finished! The witch had it! I couldn’t believe this infidelity from my aunt. I
8
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
still had my secret childhood feeling that if you hunted long enough in a book’s pages, you could find what you were
looking for, and long after I knew books better than that, I used to hunt again for the end of The Lucky Stone. It never
occurred to me that the story had an existence anywhere else outside the pages of that single green-bound book.
The last chapter was just something I would have to do without. Polly Pepper could do it. And then suddenly I tried
something – I read it again, as much as I had of it. I was in love with books at least partly for what they looked like; I
loved the printed page.
9
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT E
Born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1929, Adrienne Rich was a prolific writer and poet.
She won numerous prizes for her work, including the Wallace Stevens Award for
outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry. This poem is from The
Discovery of Poetry: A Field Guide to Reading and Writing Poems, by Frances
Mayes.
from “An Atlas of the Difficult World” by Adrienne Rich
I know you are reading this poem
late, before leaving your office
of the one intense yellow lamp-spot and the darkening window
in the lassitude of a building faded to quiet
long after rush-hour. I know you are reading this poem
standing up in a bookstore far from the ocean
on a grey day of early spring, faint flakes driven
across the plains’ enormous spaces around you.
I know you are reading this poem
in a room where too much has happened for you to bear
where the bedclothes lie in stagnant coils on the bed
and the open valise speaks of flight
but you cannot leave yet. I know you are reading this poem
as the underground train loses momentum and before running
up the stairs
toward a new kind of love
your life has never allowed.
I know you are reading this poem by the light
of the television screen where soundless images jerk and slide
while you wait for the newscast from the intifada.
I know you are reading this poem in a waiting-room
of eyes met and unmeeting, of identity with strangers.
I know you are reading this poem by fluorescent light
in the boredom and fatigue of the young who are counted out,
count themselves out, at too early an age. I know
you are reading this poem through your failing sight, the thick
lens enlarging these letters beyond all meaning yet you read on
because even the alphabet is precious.
I know you are reading this poem as you pace beside the stove
warming milk, a crying child on your shoulder, a book in your
hand
because life is short and you too are thirsty.
I know you are reading this poem which is not in your language
guessing at some words while others keep you reading
and I want to know which words they are.
10
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
I know you are reading this poem listening for something, torn
between bitterness and hope
turning back once again to the task you cannot refuse.
I know you are reading this poem because there is nothing else left to read
there where you have landed, stripped as you are.
11
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT F
Naomi Shihab Nye was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1952. Her father was a
Palestinian refugee and her mother an American of German and Swiss descent, and
Nye spent her adolescence in both Jerusalem and San Antonio, Texas. Her experience
of both cultural difference and different cultures has influenced much of her work. This
poem was taken from Laying the Foundation online documents.
“Because of Libraries We Can Say These Things” by Naomi Shihab Nye
She is holding the book close to her body,
carrying it home on the cracked sidewalk,
down the tangled hill.
If a dog runs at her again, she will use the book as a shield.
She looked hard among the long lines
of books to find this one.
When they start talking about money,
when the day contains such long and hot places,
she will go inside.
An orange bed is waiting.
Story without corners.
She will have two families.
They will eat at different hours.
She is carrying a book past the fire station
and the five and dime.
What this town has not given her
the book will provide; a sheep,
a wilderness of new solutions.
The book has already lived through its troubles.
The book has a calm cover, a straight spine.
When the step returns to itself,
as the best place for sitting,
and the old men up and down the street
are latching their clippers,
she will not be alone.
She will have a book to open
and open and open.
Her life starts here.
12
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT G
Artist Norman Rockwell was born in New York City in 1894 and achieved broad popular
appeal for his reflection of American culture. Rockwell is most famous for the magazine
cover illustrations of everyday life he created over nearly five decades. Among the
best-known of his works is Rosie the Riveter during WWII. Young Lincoln was originally
a 1964 advertising illustration for Lincoln Savings Bank. This title depicts a young
Abraham Lincoln, reading a book as he walks home from his job as a young rail splitter.
Young Lincoln by Norman Rockwell
13
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT H
Born in 1824 in London, artist Joseph Seymour Guy was trained in Europe before
moving to New York City. He earned a reputation as one of the finest genre painters
of children. His primarily cabinet-sized pictures were esteemed by his fellow artists
and leading collectors of American art. He was widely respected for his technical
ability and knowledge of the science of painting.
The Bed Time Story by Seymour Joseph Guy
14
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT I
Irish artist William Orpen was born in 1878 but mainly worked in London as a popular,
commercially successful, painter of portraits for the well-to-do. He was sent by Britain to
the Western Front during WWI for his artistic skill. He later donated his drawings of
soldiers, generals, and prisoners to the British government. Orpen painted The Window
Seat while on honeymoon with his wife This particular window was located in the northeast-facing front of the house so the morning sun would illuminate her.
The Window Seat by William Orpen
15
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT J
This cartoon was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in 1992.
“Literacy” by Steve Greenberg
16
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
DOCUMENT K
Henry A. Wallace served as FDR’s vice president from 1941-1945. He ran for
President in 1848 representing the Progressive Party, but was decisively defeated by
Democrat Harry S. Truman. Wallace’s campaign platform advocated universal
government health insurance, an end to the emerging Cold War, full voting rights for
black Americans, and an end to segregation.
“Jim Crow Must Go” by Henry A. Wallace
17
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
The Classical Model Structure
Classical rhetoricians outlined a five-part structure for an oratory, or speech,
that writers still use today, although perhaps not always consciously:
Introduction
•
•
•
Introduces the reader to the subject under discussion
Draws readers into the text by piquing their interest, challenging them,
or otherwise getting their attention
Establishes writer’s ETHOS/CREDIBILITY
Narration (brief section, may be combined in same paragraph with introduction)
•
•
•
Provides factual information and background material on the subject at
hand
Level of detail a writer uses depends largely on the audience’s knowledge
of the subject
Often appeals to PATHOS/EMOTION because the writer attempts to
evoke an emotional response about the importance of the issue being
discussed
Confirmation (Most important section)
•
•
Major part of the text
Includes development/proof needed to make the writer’s case – nuts and
bolts of the essay, containing the most specific and concrete detail in the
text – strongest appeal is to LOGOS/LOGIC
Concession and Refutation (brief section – 2-3 sentences)
•
•
Addresses the counterargument, a bridge between the writer’s proof and
the conclusion
Appeal is largely to LOGOS/LOGIC
Conclusion
•
•
•
•
Brings the essay to a satisfying close
Appeals to PATHOS and reminds reader of the ETHOS established earlier
Rather than simply repeating what has gone before, it brings all the
writer’s ideas together and answers the question, so what?
Remember: the last words and ideas of a text are those the audience is most
likely to remember – make it powerful!
18
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
Classical Model Sentence Templates
Many writers use the “they say/I say” format to agree or disagree with others, to challenge
standard ways of thinking, and thus to stir up controversy. This point may come as a shock
to you if you have always had the impression that in order to succeed academically you need
to play it safe and avoid controversy in your writing, making statements that nobody can
possibly disagree with. Though this view of writing may appear logical, it is actually a recipe
for flat, lifeless writing and for writing that fails to answer what we call the “so what?” and
“who cares?” questions.
Templates for Introducing what “They Say”
A number of ____________________have recently suggested ______________________.
(critics/policy makers, etc.)
It has become common today to dismiss _________________________.
In their recent work, Y and Z have offered harsh critiques of _______________ for ________.
Templates for Introducing “Standard Views”
Americans have always believed that _____________________________.
(Can substitute another collective noun)
Conventional wisdom has it that _________________________________.
Common sense seems to dictate that _____________________________.
The standard way of thinking about topic X has it that ______________________________.
It is often said that _______________________________________.
Many people assume that __________________________________.
Templates for Introducing Summaries and Quotations
He/She advocates a “____________________________________________.”
They celebrate the fact that “___________________________________.”
“______________________________,” he/she admits.
In his/her book, __________________________, X maintains that “___________________.”
19
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
Classical Model Sentence Templates
Templates for Introducing Summaries and Quotations
Writing in (the) ____________________, X _________________that “__________________.”
Publication name
strong verb (complains/argues)
X complicates matters further when she writes, “__________________________.”
Templates for Explaining Quotations
Basically, X is warning __________________________________.
In other words, X believes ____________________________________.
In making this comment, X urges us to __________________________________.
X is corroborating the age-old adage that ____________________________.
X’s point is that ____________________________________.
The essence of X’s argument is that ______________________________.
Templates for Disagreeing, with Reasons
X is mistaken because she overlooks _________________________________.
X’s claim that _______ rests upon the questionable assumption that ______________.
I disagree with X’s view that __________ because, as recent research has shown, _______.
By focusing on _______________, X overlooks the deeper problem of ______________.
Templates for Agreeing
I agree that ___________________ because my experience _______________ confirms it.
X is surely right about __________ because, as she may not be aware, recent studies have
shown that _____________________.
X’s theory of __________________ is extremely useful because it sheds light on the difficult
problem of __________.
20
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
Classical Model Sentence Templates
Templates for Agreeing and Disagreeing Simultaneously
Although I agree with X up to a point, I cannot accept his overriding assumption that ______.
Although I disagree with much that X says, I fully endorse his final conclusion that _______.
Though I concede that_____________________, I still insist that _______________.
X is right that ___________________, but she seems on more dubious ground when she
claims that ______________________________.
While X provides ample evidence that ___________________, Y and Z’s research on
________________ and ________________ convinces me that _____________ instead.
Templates for Entertaining Objections
At this point I would like to raise some objections that have been inspired by the skeptic in
me. She feels that I have been ignoring ________________________________.
Yet some readers may challenge my view by insisting that ________________________.
Of course, many will probably disagree on the grounds that ___________________.
21
English III Academic
Seven Lakes HS
The Book Thief
Document-Based Question
How to Read a Visual: Questions to Consider
1. What feature(s) first capture your attention and why? Notice details.
a. Why would this/these feature(s) be important?
b. Are any symbols present?
2. What is the historical, cultural, social, or economic context of the visual? Do any
necessary research about the image and its creator to determine this.
3. How does the work reveal the creator’s attitude toward the subject?
4. What is the work’s creator trying to accomplish? Summarize its purpose or message in
your own words.
a. Is the message specific or universal?
b. Is there a secondary message in the work? (Maybe subliminal?)
5. Why is the work significant? (What moved the artist to create it?)
6. Who is the audience for this visual? Try to be specific. Why do you think that?
7. What is the overall tone and mood of the work?
a. Look at colors used – elements of light and dark, contrasts
b. Look at dominant and minor elements
c. Look at placement – where elements are shown (background, lower corners,
etc.)
8. How can this visual further my argument?
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