GIVE AND TAKE: Educator Guides
Best Users: Public Librarians, Educators, School Librarians, Book Clubs, Home Learning
Best Audience: Ages 8-13
EDUCATOR GUIDES
Journaling Activity
In the novel Give and Take by Elly Swartz (FSG), Maggie journals to organize her thoughts, navigate her anxiety, heal her heart, and set goals. Her dad gives her a journal with “Go On, Change the World!” written on the cover because “we can all make the world brighter. One little thing at a time.” LCSW Bonnie Thomas, in collaboration with author Elly Swartz, has created a journaling activity for your readers with printable prompts and labels.
DOWNLOAD
Give and Take: Journaling Activity
(PDF)
Curriculum Guide
Author Elly Swartz and educators Rayna Freedman and Anna Kontos offer a Curriculum Guide with pre-reading questions, post-reading discussion questions, enrichment activities, quotable moments to consider and discuss, and more.
DOWNLOAD
Give and Take: Curriculum Guide
(PDF)
ABOUT THE BOOK
Give and Take
By Elly Swartz
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ISBN-13: 9780374308216
Age Range: 8 – 12 Years
Coming 10/15/19
Family has always been important to twelve-year-old Maggie: a trapshooter, she is coached by her dad and cheered on by her mom. But her grandmother’s recent death leaves a giant hole in Maggie’s life, one which she begins to fill with an assortment of things: candy wrappers, pieces of tassel from Nana’s favorite scarf, milk cartons, sticks . . . all stuffed in cardboard boxes under her bed.
Then her parents decide to take in a foster infant. But anxiety over the new baby’s departure only worsens Maggie’s hoarding, and soon she finds herself taking and taking until she spirals out of control. Ultimately, with some help from family, friends, and experts, Maggie learns that sometimes love means letting go.
“The writing is lucid and intelligent….Pediatric hoarding, like adoption and fostering, is portrayed sensitively,…. A potentially useful resource for kids struggling with loss, change, and letting go.”
—Kirkus Reviews
.
“This fast-paced and dialogue-heavy story may provide comfort and support to readers who have trouble processing their own strong emotions. A welcome addition to middle grade collections.”
—School Library Journal
.
“Sensitive and affirming look at a problem not often tackled in middle-grade fiction.”
—Booklist
