Chains

What is the purpose of Chains?
The act of being chained to one group of people, to family, to friends, to morals...
"I was chained between two Nations" (188?).

At first I was not a fan at all of this book.
This is one of the only Historical Fiction books that I have read...
Honestly, I am not a fan, but am glad for the experience.
I am however a huge fan of Laurie Halse Anderson; yet, this book was not what I was hoping for. Maybe I was thrown off because it is a young adult novel, but deals with extremely

I see how this could be a great supplementary text in a social studies class. I have been reading a lot about using a variety of texts in content area classes. I had the thought yesterday that all subject areas should be encouraged to use a variety of texts and not text books.

I love the themes of family, love, chains, freedom that run through out the entire text. This is also a great representation for young students to see the realistic every

Here are some of my favorite quotes!

"The best time to talk to ghosts is just before the sun comes up. That's when they can hear us true, Momma said" (1).
The whole idea of ghosts here is not that they are scary, but that they are powerful spirits.

"My eyes were as starved for words as the rest of me was for dinner" (59). This shows the true nature of the slaves during this time.

"The beast has grown too large." The Mayor said, "If it breaks free of its chains, we are all in danger. We need to cut off its head" (89). I particularly like this quote, not only because it foreshadows what is to come, but also personifies the conflict between the Tories/ Loyalists and the Patriots.

"How could men who liked cats be bad" (188)? I love this quote, because I am a cat person! :)

As part of my final project for my independent study, I was required to create a Google Lit Trip using a historical fiction text. This was an extremely challenge for me for the follow reasons:
1) Learning how to use Google earth was a challenge
2) The book is historical fiction and based in the 1700s; therefore, most of the places were fictional. Since this occured back in the 1700s, most of the places have been renamed or do not exist anymore. The events were mostly accurate and true. Laurie Halse Anderson stated in appendix that:

The real letters, diaries, newspaper articles, runaway ads, cookbooks, and military reports that I found in my research helped me develop the characters....The tension between Patriot and Loyalist New Yorkers, the Tea Water Pump, the taking of lead from houses, the pulling down of King George's statue, the chaos surrounding the British invasion of the city, the fire, prisoners of war, the Queen's Birthday Ball: all of these are historical facts. I wove the fictional characters of Isabel and Curzon into the history" (303).