Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

Big Mouth & Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates is a story of compassion, friendship, and justice that will truly speak to anyone. This book will take you through the ordinary and extra-ordinary life of Ursula Riggs and Matt Donaghy.

Big Mouth and Ugly Girl by Joyce Carol Oates

 

High school student Matt Donaghy is considered an okay guy. He gets good grades, writes for the school paper, and is known for his witty, if immature, humor. Students and teachers seem to like him. But one day he says something that makes a few classmates think he's out to bomb the school. The school principal is notified, the police are called in, and rumors are abuzz. Even his buddies doubt his innocence, and none of the guys come forward in his defense. Only the school renegade, the somewhat frightening Ursula Riggs, a girl who Matt barely knows, is willing to speak up on his behalf. But even if Ursula can help Matt clear up this misunderstanding, will life ever be the same again?

 

You can find the text here: Big Mouth and Ugly Girl

 

Study plan

The book has 49 chapters. We will divide the book into five sections, and there will be one reading log for each section. You can both read and listen to the book.

 

Reading Log 1: chapters 1-9 

Ch 1-4 (50 min, Friday week 9)

Ch 5-6 (50 min, Thursday week 10)

Ch 7-9 (45 min, Friday week 10, Thursday week 11).

Answer the questions in "Reading log 1" (Friday week 11)

 

Reading Log 2-3: chapters 10-30

Ch 10-13 (43 min, finished Thursday week 12)

Ch 14-16 (46 min, finished Thursday week 13)

 

(Easter break week 14)

 

Ch 17-24 (52 min, finished Friday week 15)

Ch 25-30 (23 min) + answer questions in "Reading log 2 and 3" ( finished Thursday week 17).

 

Reading log 4: chapters 31-42

- Lesson 10: ch 31-36 (49 min, Friday week 17 )

- Lesson 11: ch 37-42 (63 min, Thursday week 18 )

- Lessons 12-13: answer the questions in "Reading log 4" (Friday week 19, Thursday week 20 )

 

Reading log 5: chapters 43-49

- Lesson 14: ch 43-49 (48 min, Friday week 20)

- Lesson 15: answer questions in "Reading log 5". (Thursday week 21)

 

 

Uppgifter

Reading Log 2+3 (ch 10-30)

Reading log 2

1.

a) Choose one character to describe as carefully and detailed as possible (looks, personality, their actions in the story).

b) What do you think of the character? What do you think of his/her actions in the story? What do you think when it comes to personality? Why do you think this? Explain!

Give at least one example/quote from the book as evidence ("I see xx as a very responsible person, because when....").

Reading log 3

1. Choose a quote from the book that you think is interesting, funny, irritating! Copy it and explain why you chose it. What happened before this quote and what happened afterwards? I have you ever experienced anything like this? Explain!

3. What do you think about the author's descriptions of the environment?

Are they too long, too few, beautiful, realistic, etc? The environment is not just the landscape.

4. What do you think about the story so far? Why? Give examples from the book!

Reading Log 1: ch 1-9

Write here in Unikum or in a shared document (write all the reading logs in the same document if you choose this alternative). Put the link to the document in the reading log assignments.

*******************************************************************************

1. How does the novel start? Choose one of the alternatives. Does it start with…..

a) somebody saying something

b) a description (of the environment or of a character)

c) something happening

d) an explanation of the background to the story

f) something else____________________________________________

2. Do you think it's a good beginning? Why/why not?

3. How do you like the novel so far? Explain why and motivate your

answer.

4. Write a short summary of what has happened so far.

5. How would you describe Matt and Ursula (looks, personality, social situation at school)?

Translation

Translate the following words into Swedish.

Big Mouth&Ugly Girl wordlist chapters 1-4.pdf

Big Mouth&Ugly Girl wordlist chapter 5-9.pdf

Reading Log 4 (ch 31-49)

Almost all novels have conflicts of some kind. Sometimes they are between two or more people (external conflicts), and sometimes the conflict is within the characters themselves (internal conflicts).

Try to find examples of both of these kinds of conflicts.The character might for example be fighting with another character, and that would make an external conflict, or the character might be struggling with him- or herself over something he/she has done that he/she knows was wrong.

****

Describe at least three different conflicts. Give examples and use quotes from the book to show what those conflicts are about.

****