Notes

Maybe you already know that finding a good book to read is like finding a good friend to spend time with. Like i different in every story that you read. Your being able to read and understand a story is very important. There are several things that you can do to make the story or books you read be more understandable, interesting, and easy to remember.

The first step in enjoying what you read is choosing a good book. You can find a book that will interest you by previewing several books. One way to preview is to read what someone else thinks about the book. Sometimes the book cover or the inside cover of a book will tell you what that book is about. You can also preview a book by looking through the first few chapters and seeing if the story looks interesting.

Many libraries have computers that may help you. They will preview the book for you by telling you the topic of the book. You may want to ask your local librarian if the library’s computer is able to help you preview a book. What would make a book interesting to you? What type of book do you enjoy reading? Below is a list of 11 books. Each of these books has a different topic. Print out this list, go to the library and preview several of these books. With the help of your guide, choose a book which you think you would enjoy reading.

• Abel’s Island by William Stieg (Farrar, 1976).
• Anastasia Krupnik by Lois Lowry (Houghton, 1979).
• Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary (Morrow, 1984).
• Guns for General Washington: The Impossible Journey by Seymour Reit (Harcourt, 1990).
• The Hundred Dresses by Eleanore Estes (Harcourt, 1974).
• Justin and the Best Biscuits in the World by Mildred Pitts Walter (Lothrop & Lee, 1985).
• The Kid in the Red Jacket by Barbara Parks (Knopf, 1981).
• The Magnificent Mummy Maker by Elvira Woodruff (Scholastic, 1994).
• Soup by Robert Newton (Dell, 1970).
• Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume (Dutton, 1972).
• Twenty and Ten by Claire Hutchet Bishop (Viking, 1952).You are now ready for your second step in reading a good book. As you begin to read your book, be an active reader. Active readers predict what will happen next in the story. Predicting helps to make the story more exciting. Think of predicting as your being a part of the story. As you read a story, pretend that you are one of the characters in the story. Think of what you would do and what decisions you would make if you were one of the main characters. As you read the story, continue to predict what you think will happen. At the end of the story, look back and see how many of your predictions came true.

Your third step in reading is an easy one. Sometimes it is easy for a reader to forget some of the important parts of a story. To help you remember the important parts of a story, reread them. You can also reread the exciting parts of a story. Rereading will help you remember the details of a particular story. Rereading will also help you enjoy the story more.One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And 60 cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by shopping for bargains at the grocery store. Three times Della counted. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the little couch and cry. So that’s what Della did. Della’s home was not very nice. It was a furnished apartment that cost $8 a week. It was not a poor home, but it was definitely not as nice as many of the apartments in the city.At the bottom of the stairs was a little mailbox that was in such bad shape that it couldn’t hold any letters. Next to the mailbox was a doorbell that didn’t work. Beside the doorbell was a nameplate with the name, “Mr. James Dillingham Young.” Whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and opened his apartment door, he was called “Jim” and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

Della finished her cry and wiped her cheeks with a cloth. She stood by the window and looked out at a gray cat walking on a gray fence in a gray backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, but it was no good. Twenty dollars a week doesn’t go far. Bills had been greater than she had thought. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare—something just a little bit worthy of the honor of being a present owned by Jim.Della suddenly whirled from the window and stood before the living room mirror. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its color within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length. (predict)

Now, there were two possessions Jim and Della Young had that they were proud of. One was Jim’s gold watch that had been his father’s and grandfather’s. The other was Della’s hair. There was not a woman around who didn’t love Della’s beautiful hair. There was not a man who didn’t admire Jim’s precious watch. (reread)

Della’s beautiful hair lay about her shoulders like a waterfall of brown waters. It reached below her knees and made itself almost into a coat. Then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Della thought for a minute, stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn, red carpet, and then put on her old brown coat and old brown hat. With a sparkle in her eyes, she rushed out the door and down the stairs to the street. (predict)Della ran to where the sign read: “Madame Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.” One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame Sofronie was a large, pale woman.

“Will you buy my hair?” asked Della. (predict)

“I buy hair,” said Madame. “Take your hat off and let’s have a look at it.”

Down flowed the brown hair.

“Twenty dollars,” said Madame, lifting the hair with her hand.

“Give it to me quick,” said Della.

After her hair was cut, Della hurried to the stores to find Jim’s present.
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a handsome watch chain but simple in design. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim’s. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch, Jim would be sure to look at the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it quickly because of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.

When Della reached home, she got out her hot curlers and went to work repairing the damage made by the scissors that had cut for love.

Within 40 minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a little kid. She looked long and carefully at her reflection in the mirror.

“If Jim doesn’t kill me before he takes a second look at me,” she said to herself, “he’ll say I look like an eight-year-old girl. But what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?”

At 7 o’clock the coffee was made and the frying pan was on the back of the stove, hot and ready to cook the chops.

Jim was never late. Della doubled the watch chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit of saying a little silent prayer about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: “Please God, make him think I am still pretty.” (?)

The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and serious. Poor fellow, he was only 22—and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.

Jim stopped inside the door. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it scared her. It was not anger, or surprise, or disapproval, or horror, or anything that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her with a weird look on his face. Della ran to him. (?)Jim, darling,” she cried, “don’t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It’ll grow out again—you won’t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say ‘Merry Christmas!’ Jim, and let’s be happy. You don’t know what a nice—what a beautiful, nice gift I’ve got for you.”

“You’ve cut off your hair?” asked Jim, as if he could not understand what had happened.

“Cut it off and sold it,” said Della. “Don’t you like me just as well, anyhow? I’m me without my hair, aren’t I?”

Jim looked about the room. (predict)

“You say your hair is gone?” he said.

“You needn’t look for it,” said Della. “It’s sold, I tell you—sold and gone, too. It’s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,” she went on with sudden serious sweetness, “but nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?”