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Here you’ll find multimedia resources to help you improve teaching and learning in your classrooms. We offer a classroom strategy library, video modules (with aligned teaching materials) demonstrating effective practices, professional development webcasts to watch anytime, and more.

Scholastic, Inc.

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City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende

About the Book

In the midst of his mother’s struggle with cancer, fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold has the opportunity to take the trip of a lifetime. Accompanying his fearless grandmother, a magazine reporter for International Geographic, Alexander sets off on an expedition to the remote world of the Amazon. On this mission he meets Nadia, the young daughter of their local guide and together they begin a magical and mystical adventure.

About the Author

Isabel Allende was born in Peru and raised in Chile. She is the author of these international best-sellers for adult readers: Portrait in Sepia, Daughter of Fortune, The Infinite Plan, Eva Luna, Of Love and Shadows, and The House of the Spirits, the short story collection The Stories of Eva Luna, the memoir Paula, and Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses. Her books have been translated into more than twenty-seven languages and have become bestsellers across four continents. In 2004 she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Isabel Allende lives in California.

Guide provided by Harper Collins.

Discussion Questions

  • Alexander goes into a destructive rage after witnessing his father chopping off his mother’s hair. How does this reaction help the reader understand the pain that he is experiencing? How do his reactions to his mother’s illness compare to those of his sisters?
  • Describe the relationship between Alexander and his grandmother. How is this relationship different from the typical relationship between a grandmother and her grandson? How does their relationship change?
  • What are totemic animals? Describe the circumstances of how Alexander and Nadia’s totemic animals are revealed to them.
  • How do Alexander and Nadia’s strengths and weaknesses compliment one another?
  • How does Dr. Omayra Torres deceive the other members of the group? How are her motives ironic?
  • What is the symbolism of the crystal eggs and the water of health? Why do Nadia and Alexander risk their lives for these things? What do they give up in order to attain them?
  • How does Ludovic Leblanc’s public image and reputation contrast with his personal actions? How do his opinions about the Indians and the Beast change as the story evolves?
  • Describe the Beasts. What is unique about them? How do they compare to the image that the members of the expedition had projected?
City of the Beasts

City of the Beasts

Isabel Allende
Age Level:
Middle Grade
Genre:
Fantasy, Fiction
Published:
2004
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Distinct stories which involve a mouse, a human princess, and a rat seamlessly come together to surprise and absorb readers as they see the struggle between light and dark in this Newbery-winning novel.

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Helping Equip Teachers to Answer Students’ Questions on College Knowledge

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Sustained Silent Reading

Could you send me some current research which indicates that a sustained reading program benefits adolescent readers? We are having trouble in our high school with staff who do not feel that there are any benefits to the 20 minutes of sustained reading we do weekly with our students.

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

About the Book

As the Revolutionary War begins, 13-year-old Isabel wages her own fight for freedom. Promised freedom upon the death of their owner, Isabel and her sister, Ruth, in a cruel twist of fate become the property of a malicious New York City couple, who have no sympathy for the American Revolution and even less for the two girls. When Isabel meets Curzon, a slave with ties to the Patriots, he encourages her to spy on her owners, who know details of British plans for invasion. She is reluctant at first, but when the unthinkable happens to Ruth, Isabel realizes her loyalty is available to the bidder who can provide her with freedom.

Discussion Questions

  • Describe the life of slaves in the American colonies in the 1700s. Discuss the difference between a servant and a slave. How did Miss Mary Finch’s view of slavery differ from that of most slave owners? Why does Mr. Robert accuse Isabel of lying when she tells him that she read Miss Mary’s will? Explain why Pastor Weeks thinks that teaching a slave to read only “leads to trouble.”
  • The American Revolution was about freedom and liberty. Mr. Lockton, a Loyalist, thinks that freedom and liberty has many meanings. Define freedom from his point of view. How might the Patriots define freedom and liberty? Isabel has lived her entire life in bondage, but dreams of freedom. What does freedom look like in Isabel’s mind?
  • Isabel encounters a woman in the street singing “Yankee Doodle,” and realizes that the woman is a messenger. What is the message? Colonel Regan gives Isabel the code word ad astra to use when entering the rebel camp. The word means “to the stars” in Latin. Why is this an appropriate code word for the rebels? How does this word foreshadow Isabel and Curzon’s ultimate escape to freedom at the end of the novel?
  • The mayor of New York, a Loyalist, says, “The beast has grown too large. If it breaks free of its chains, we are all in danger. We need to cut off its head.” Who is the beast? Who is the head? Why is Lockton so adamantly opposed to the mayor’s proposal?
  • What does Isabel mean when she says, “I was chained between two nations”? There are several references to chains throughout the novel. How is the word “chain” used as an antonym to the word “freedom”?
Chains

Chains

Laurie Halse Anderson
Age Level:
Middle Grade
Genre:
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Published:
2008
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Voices of Autism

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America's Promise Alliance

Engaging Parents to Support Good School Attendance

Poor school attendance is a strong predictor of school dropout. Children can’t learn if they aren’t present in school, so attendance is a must. Parents are best positioned to ensure children attend school and to build the expectation around attendance.

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