III. Post-reading

3.1. Feelings.

While reading the story, you must have felt some strange sensation. When did you begin to feel it first? Share you feelings with the group. If you didn't feel it, it is strange, mysterious even...

3.2. Family archives.

The authors of this book received the following letter in 1992. Study the letter and say if it changed your attitude towards the story.

Cave Creek, Arizona 14 January 1992

Dear Maslovs,

Cricket Magazine publishers kindly forwarded to me your letter in which you mention the August issue of Cricket. You write that you particularly liked The Mysterious Girl at the Pool among other stories. I am very pleased that my story gave you "the creeps". It is wonderful and all too rare for an author to hear from appreciative readers and to hear from readers from so far away was especially thrilling for me.

I must tell you that something happened to me when I was eleven that was very much like what happened to the girl in the ghost story. I met a girl named Roxanne at the swimming pool. We spent the day together and made plans to meet again, but I never saw her again. I found out from distant relatives that the only Roxanne they knew had died long before.

I do enjoy ghost stories, both reading and writing them. I am working on another one at the moment called The Face in the Mirror. I also like to travel. When I was younger, I lived in France for several years and traveled to many countries in Europe. I would like to go back someday with my two children and my husband Pierre, who was born in the north of France.

In the US we read and hear about the most incredible happenings in your country. I think that your people must be very courageous and I hope that this courage will be rewarded with freedom, freedom from want and from chaos, as well as the freedom to say what you want.

A professor at the University of Minnesota (I used to live in Minnesota) told me a few years ago that American books are not always easy to find in the Soviet Union (How should I say now: the CIS?). I have published several books for children, and I have also written two novels. I am sending some books and hope that nothing prevents them from arriving. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed your kind words for my story.

Juanita Havill

OVERALL DISCUSSION

STORY CONTEST.

Recall the stories read in the present book (Part 1), and discuss their relative merits in a comprehensive fashion. All the twenty "contestants" might be nominated for:

THE BEST OF THE BEST

THE MOST INTRIGUING PLOT

THE MOST COLORFUL STYLE

THE MOST PROFOUND MESSAGE

THE MOST UNBELIEVABLE STORY

Make your individual choices, and then compare them with those of your group mates. Find out which are the champion stories.

CHARACTER TEST.

Name the three characters from the stories who seem to be the most appealing to you. Give your reasons and explain in greater detail.

RECALL-LEVEL TEST.

On the spot, prepare a list of twenty newly-learnt words that come from the stories you have read. Say which stories they come from, and why you remembered them better than others.

PERSONALITY PROFILE TEST.

Find one particular character in the twenty stories whose thinking or behavior is similar to your teenage ones. Please, explain. Is there anyone you'd like to imitate in any way?

STORYTELLING CONTEST.

Choose one story to practice storytelling skills. Prepare a brief but artistic retelling of the story. Perform it in front of your group.

TRANSLATION CONTEST.

Prepare a literary translation of the Champion Story (see Story Contest). Polish it, and then publish it locally.

CASTLES