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Stoke Books Classroom discussion guide
robert swindells Trick or Treat Part 1
Synopsis & Themes
Part 2 Chapter-by-Chapter Exploration part 3 About Robert Swindells
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part 1
synopsis & themes
This guide has been produced to provide ideas for guiding less confident readers through Robert Swindell’s Trick or Treat, a very accessible short novel with a spooky theme and a lesson or two on listening to parents’ advice! In order to promote the development of prediction and inference skills, this guide approaches the book chapter-by-chapter, providing ideas for guided reading and for extension work. Trick or Treat is the first-person narrative of fed-up teen Harley, who has been landed with the care of his younger sister and brother on Halloween. He would much rather be at the school dance trying his luck with fellow student Uma Broom, but his parents want him to take more responsibility for helping in the house. When they set out trick-or-treating, Harley’s dad warns him about letting his brother and sister out of his sight. Harley doesn’t consider there to be much danger from the “old people and piano teachers” of Park Villas, but he and the kids make some enemies within their first few calls there. While the kids trick-or-treat, Harley’s attention is caught by an odd white thing in the trees in the dark park opposite. He forgets his father’s warning and leaves the kids just long enough to investigate, following the white apparition into the park, where it takes on the form of Uma Broom, the girl he likes at school. Freaked out, Harley returns to the children where he finds a subtle change has come over them. There is something odd about their eyes and they have started to terrorize one of the women in Park Villas. Harley realizes that something has possessed the children but has his work cut out for him explaining it to the Park Villa residents, who are all set to call the police. In the end Harley’s father is called and puts everything right . He takes them all home and Harley resolves to have nothing to do with the dance after all. The next day, it transpires that Uma was not at the dance either…
Trick or Treat has many of the elements of a traditional ghost story. There are gentle messages regarding behavior and conduct – Harley is a reasonably likeable character who thinks he’s been taken advantage of but is essentially something of a recalcitrant teen and his brother and sister are horrors. The reader suspects that they may all be scared into slightly better behavior by their experiences on Halloween. The novel has a relatively open ending.
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part 2 chapter-by-chapter exploration Front cover What does the group predict this story is going to be about? When do they think it will be set? Why? Chapter 1: All Right for You Summary We learn that Harley has been named after a bike by his dad, although he is quite sanguine about the fact. We learn that it is Halloween, and there is going to be a dance at Harley’s school. One teacher, Miss Lake, disapproves as she believes that portals to the spirit world open up at Halloween and evil spirits may be able to come through to our world. Read P1 and pause: What do the group think of the name Harley Davidson? Does the group think Harley is a girl or a boy? What does this page tell us about Harley? Is Harley: the sort of person who moans and gets fed-up? the sort of person who looks at everything in a good light and stays cheerful? somewhere in the middle? Harley is a first-person narrator. What is a first-person narrator?
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Read P2 and P3 Was the group right about whether Harley was a boy or a girl? What does the group think of the things Miss Lake says about Halloween? Do they think that Halloween is dangerous or do they agree with Dave Watson and Harley’s point-of-view? What do the group think Harley “has to do” at the dance? Activities RESEARCH Halloween. Find out about the origins of the festival and beliefs surrounding it. Make displays of research under the following headings:
˚˚ Origins ˚˚ Beliefs
˚˚ Halloween customs in different parts of the world Chapter 2: Uma Broom Summary Harley reveals his plan to go to the dance as Dracula in a really great costume, in the hope of catching the eye of Uma Broom from the 11th grade. Read the chapter Why does the group think that Robert Swindells has chosen the name Uma Broom? Is there anything about it that links to the theme of the book, as far as they know it so far? Does the way Harley is shown in this chapter confirm that the group was right in how they viewed his character, or does he seem different? What sort of lad do they think Dave Watson is? Activities DRAW Harley in his Dracula costume.
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Chapter 3: Messing Around Summary Harley has a little brother and sister who are both in elementary school. His mom asks him to take them trick-or-treating on Halloween, on the basis that it’s time he helped out more. He protests as he will miss part of the dance but his mother will not budge on the subject. Harley tries to bribe the kids, but they refuse to go along with this. Read the first paragraph of P7 In this section Harley speaks directly to the reader. What effect does this have? Does it make the reader more or less likely to see Harley’s point-of-view? If the group have brothers and sisters, do they agree with Harley’s point-of-view? Read up to “That’s plenty of time” on P9 Does the group think it’s fair of Harley’s mom to make him take the kids out? Read the rest of the chapter In this chapter, Harley’s mom and dad use a lot of stock phrases – phrases that are heard over and over again in certain scenes in books, films, TV shows and perhaps even real life. Can the group find some of these phrases? Harley said on P7 that his brother and sister are pains. Could Harley himself be seen as a pain? Look for similarities between the way his brother and sister speak to him and the way he speaks to/thinks of his mom and dad. Activities DISCUSS the group’s experience of guising and trick-or-treating. “Guising” means going from door to door on Halloween, in costume, asking for money and candy. The word is very old and now it is most commonly used in Scotland. “Trick-or-treating” is an American version of the custom, which is now common in the UK and other parts of the world as well. There is an added element, as the people in disguise threaten to play a trick on people if they don’t get a treat. Have the group ever been guising/trick-or-treating? What did they do? What happened?
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Chapter 4: Candy Monsters Summary Harley ups the amount of the bribe he will pay to his brother and sister to say they don’t want to go trick-or-treating, but they refuse. Halloween comes around and they head off, in their costumes, after Harley has been reminded by his dad to toe the line and not let the kids out of his sight. Harley thinks this is an over-reaction and in fact is most nervous about being seen by his friends. Meg and Ryan, on the other hand, are excited and a bit nervous of knocking on doors. Harley takes the opportunity to wind them up by telling them scary stories about the people who live in the houses. As Meg and Ryan get a treat from the old man in the first house they visit, Harley sees a strange plastic shape in the trees in the park opposite. It creeps him out but then Meg and Ryan reappear and he is shaken out of his reverie. Read P14 and P15 At some point on these pages, the story switches from the past to the present. Can the group find this place? How do they know the time has switched? Look at the line: “‘Forget it,’ grates my sweet little sister.” What does “grates” mean? What other, more common word, could it be replaced by here? As you read, look for examples of other words being used in place of “said”. Why does Harley call Meg “sweet”? Does he mean it? Discuss the concept of sarcasm. Read up to “I’m not knocking here, then” on P14 Does the group think that Harley really believes the woman who lives in the house is “mad as a hatter”? Why does he say it? Read to the end of the chapter What does the group think Harley has seen in the trees? Activities The story Harley tells the children is very much like an urban legend. An urban legend is a modern folktale – usually spooky stories people swear are true but are not. Gather together a selection of urban legends from the internet to share with the group. Pick the one they like most and PRACTICE TELLING IT in really spooky ways. Let each person use their own words to tell it.
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Chapter 5: A Trick of the Light Summary A woman objects to Meg and Ryan knocking on her door and Harley is rude to her. The children continue to knock on doors and Harley continues to watch the white shape on the other side of the road, which seems to be following them. Eventually he tells the children to head to the next house and he crosses the road to investigate. As he gets closer, the moon comes out and the shape changes into Uma Broom. Read the first two lines on P17 Who is speaking? Does it matter that the author doesn’t use “they said”, “she said” etc? Read the rest of the page, and P18 What does the group think of the way Harley speaks to the woman? Would they speak to an adult like that? Read up to the end of P20 What does the group think the white thing is now? Read up to the middle of P21 How has Harley disobeyed his father’s instructions here? Read up to the end of the chapter What does Harley mean when he talks about the trick picture? Have the group ever seen a picture like that? Did the group expect the white shape to become Uma? Do they think the shape is really Uma? Activities On P17 Harley says the woman looked at him “like I’m something the cat coughed up.” When something is compared to something else and the word “like” is used, we call the comparison a simile. MAKE UP similes with the group for nasty things. Use these sentence starters:
1. “The king looked at the beggar like he was____________________________ “ 2. “The other kids treated Rosie like a __________________________________ “ 3. “The river flowed past like a ________________________________________ “ FIND trick pictures on the internet.
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Chapter 6: A Bit Undead Summary Harley speaks to Uma, who does not answer. At first he hopes she has come to find him, and then begins to wonder if the whole thing is a trick the other kids have played on him. When he accuses Uma of being part of a prank, she laughs and walks into the park. Since it is a nice laugh, Harley follows. Uma runs away from him in a teasing way and he follows ever deeper into the park. Then Uma runs out onto the pond, and she dances and spins on top of the water. Harley realizes that the apparition is not Uma, and remembers Miss Lake’s warnings about Halloween. Then he remembers that he is supposed to be looking after the children. As he runs back he remembers his father’s entreaties and Miss Lake’s warnings and concludes that the Uma spirit must have led him away so that other spirits could get to Meg and Ryan. He reaches number 5 but instead of Meg and Ryan he finds just the old owner of the house. Read P24 to P26 Take turns reading out the first paragraph on P23. How do the punctuation and the italics help us to understand how Harley is speaking? What do the italics in the first paragraph on P24 tell us about these lines? (Harley’s thoughts). What are other ways to write down thoughts? Harley goes through a lot of emotions on these pages as different ideas occur to him. Make a list of the emotions. Read P25 Is there anything odd about Uma’s clothes and shoes? What does this suggest to the reader? What is odd about Uma’s laugh? Does the image Robert Swindells uses for her laugh tie-in in any way to the images of her clothes and shoes? What has Uma NOT done at any point so far in the chapter? (spoken). Read P25 and P26, as far as “that’s why she’s called Broom.” Does it “seem daft” to the group? Do they think Harley is right to think this is not really Uma? What do they think Harley will do next – run or stay? Read the rest of P26 and P27 If the group were in Harley’s shoes, would they reach the same conclusion as Harley – that Uma/ the white shape is a demon and that it wanted to tempt Harley away so its mates could get to Meg and Ryan? Discuss why Harley thinks that. Could it be that Harley feels guilty as he has not listened to his dad?
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Read P28 Harley says “cold fear floods my guts”. What does the group think he means? Can they imagine the feeling he is describing? Is it a good image? Activities MAKE A SOUNDSCAPE using a tinkling bell device from the music department, plus sounds of wind, creaking tree branches, rustling leaves and high, tinkling laughter. Practice it until it is really good. Record sections of Chapter 6, read by different members of the group, while the others do sound effects in the background. Chapter 7: Where ’ s your Dog? Summary Harley quizzes the owner of number 5, who tells him that Meg and Ryan left ten minutes before, headed for number 6. He goes there, but the woman tells him that they ran away before she could give them anything. She is kind to Harley and asks if he would like to use her phone to call for help, but he says he has a cell phone. She reassures him that the children will probably be just fine. As Harley reflects on how upset his parents will be, he hears children’s laughter and finds Meg and Ryan in the garden of number 5, the house of the woman he argued with earlier. The children are staging a horrible attack, throwing dog poop at the woman and repeating mocking chants – they have also broken her windows. Neighbors arrive and round on Harley. When Harley tries to check the children Meg reminds him that he had been horrible to the woman himself, and then scratches his face. The children keep on taunting the woman and Harley tells her he thinks that it’s not children they’re dealing with. Read P29 – P31, up to “Almost is a dangerous word.” What tense is this section of the book written in? Why is this important? (It is important because it puts the reader in Harvey’s shoes – the reader finds things out at the same time as Harvey and shares his panic. There is no safe distance from the story, as happens when someone tells a story in the past tense). Do the group think this is effective? This section is also written a bit like a script, with lots of speech. Does it remind the group of any TV dramas they have seen, for example crime dramas where a parent is looking for a missing child or the police are looking for a missing person? Read these lines aloud like a script. Try to capture Harvey’s panic. Discuss the line “Almost is a dangerous word.” What does Harvey mean? Create sentences using the word “almost” to introduce something terrible, for example “The climbers almost made it back to the base camp before the storm, but they were a mile away when it hit.”
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Read the rest of the chapter Summarize the events of the whole chapter as bullet points, for example:
˚˚ Harley finds out Meg and Ryan left number 5 about ten minutes ago and may have gone to number 6
˚˚ The lady at number 6 says Meg and Ryan ran away. She asks Harley if he wants to use the phone and tries to reassure him
˚˚ Harley imagines how angry his mom and dad will be ˚˚ Harley hears laughter
˚˚ Harley finds Meg and Ryan back at the house of the woman Harley was rude to before. They are taunting her and throwing things at her
˚˚ The woman’s neighbor turns up and shouts at Harley ˚˚ Another neighbor arrives and is also angry at Harley
˚˚ Harley tries to make Meg and Ryan stop but Meg scratches him ˚˚ Harley thinks he is not dealing with Meg and Ryan at all ˚˚ Meg and Ryan start chanting and throwing things again
˚˚ The woman tries to get back inside – Harley realizes she is covered in dog poop ˚˚ Harley tries to tell the adults that there is something wrong.
Meg and Ryan’s behavior is very extreme. Is it entirely out of character for them? Does the group think that Meg and Ryan have been possessed? Why/why not? Activities Meg and Ryan imitate other people’s speech, like an echo. This is a common thing for children to do. What other irritating tricks to children play on adults? WRITE short pieces about the naughty things the group got up to when they were small.
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Chapter 8: Aliens? Summary The neighbors of the woman at number 5 get out a phone to call the police. Harley begs them not to, telling them that his family are good people and that his father could lose his security guard job if Meg and Ryan are arrested. He tries to explain Meg and Ryan’s behavior as a trick but no one is buying that. Then he reveals that he thinks they have been possessed. The neighbors mock him, asking if he is talking about aliens, but when he explains about Miss Lake and the portals, Miss Conrad begins to listen. She says that she knows Miss Lake and that Harley might be right. Harley promises to clean everything up and to call his dad to come and get them and put things right. Miss Conrad agrees. She goes back inside, the neighbors tell Harley how lucky he is, and Meg and Ryan come back to themselves. They are both traumatized by what they have done and discuss strange feelings of fear and anger, which left them suddenly. Their dad arrives, gutted, and takes them home. Harley does not have the heart to go anywhere near the disco. Read up to the end of P39 If the group were in the place of Miss Conrad, would they believe Harley’s explanation of what has happened, or would they be of the same opinion as the neighbors? Why? Read to the end of the chapter Does the group believe that Meg and Ryan have been possessed? Do they think there are any alternative explanations? For example, do children ever get “hyper” and behave very badly? Do any other possible explanations seem likely to the group, or do they prefer Harley, Meg and Ryan’s version of events? Activities RUN A SHORT DEBATE on whether Harley’s parents were right to send Harley out to look after Meg and Ryan on Halloween. Split the group into two. One group will argue that Harley’s parents should not have let Harley take the children as the children can be badly behaved, Harley is too young etc. The other group will argue that it was a good idea for Harley to take the children as he is old enough, should take responsibility and the events that happened were beyond his control. Support the groups in developing their arguments.
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Chapter 9: Stuff we Can ’ t Explain Summary It’s the next day. The previous night seems like a dream to Harley, and he thinks that Meg and Ryan feel the same. Their father is over fixing things at Miss Conrad’s house and their mom is keeping quiet. Meg and Ryan are off school as they are so tired and upset. Harley has taken the blame for the episode. Harley’s mom is sure he must be desperate to get back to school and find out how the dance went, but he is still concerned about his friends finding out he was babysitting. When he gets to school Dave Watson teases him for missing the dance, and tells him that Uma Broom did not turn up either. Read the whole chapter Has Harley changed: In every way In some ways In no way Ask the group to explain their answers. Dave Watson tells Harley that Uma was not at the dance. This does not change Harley’s view of the things that happened the previous night. Does it change the group’s view of the things that happened? Why/why not? Activities Working together in a Shared Writing exercise, WRITE A NEWSPAPER REPORT on Meg and Ryan’s attack on Miss Conrad’s house. Include:
˚˚ A Headline ˚˚ ˚˚ ˚˚ ˚˚
Remember headlines are short and punchy and often cut out “little words” like “a” and “the” Date Summary of the main content of the article in the first paragraph Background information on people involved Witness statements.
Summing up Did the group enjoy the novel? Was the ending good? Would they have changed it if they were Robert Swindells? How? What message(s) do they think the novel has? Do they think the characters were believable? Would they like to read more by Robert Swindells?
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part 4 about robert swindells Robert Swindells was born in England and left school when he was 15 years old. He went to work for a newspaper, and then joined the Royal Air Force. When he left the Air Force he became a teacher. He first began to write when he was doing his teacher training and he kept on doing both jobs until 1980, when he left teaching and became a writer full-time. Robert’s novels have won many awards, including the Children’s Book Award (for Brother in the Land in 1984, Room 13 in 1990, Nightmare Stairs in 1998 and Blitzed in 2003) and the very important Carnegie Medal (for Stone Cold in 1993). Robert is now in his seventies and he is still writing and is very active in politics. In 2010 and 2011 he stood in local elections for the Green Party. He has also spoken against nuclear weapons – the theme of his book Brother in the Land. Robert says that the novel, “... came out of my own anger and frustration ... you can’t kill selectively with nuclear weapons, you wipe out millions of people ...”
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