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Copywork
About This Passage
This is the chapter's opening, and it teaches the whole book's ironic voice in four sentences: a cheerful name set against a flat, dead place. The short declarative sentences and the turn at 'Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland' model how a writer can build contrast and mood with plain words and careful word order.
There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. Now it is just a dry, flat wasteland.
Full copywork activity with handwriting lines available in the complete study guide.
Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
In your own words, describe what kind of place Camp Green Lake is. What are the most important things Sachar wants us to know about it before any people appear, and how can you tell those are the details that matter most?
Discussion Questions
- Louis Sachar names the place Camp Green Lake, yet the first thing he tells us is that there is no lake, only a dry, flat wasteland. Why might Sachar open with a name that promises the opposite of what the place really is, and what mood does that contrast set for the story? Use the chapter's words about Green Lake to explain your thinking.
- Twice the narrator gives a calm warning and then adds a single quiet word on its own line: 'Usually.' Why do you think Sachar first lets us relax with a rule about rattlesnakes and scorpions and then unsettles us with that one word, and how does it change the way safe and unsafe feel at Camp Green Lake? Point to the words around 'Usually' to support your answer.
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
An empty, ruined stretch of land where almost nothing can live or grow.
Item 2
Dried out and shrunken, the way a plant curls up when it loses all its water.
Item 3
Stays close to one level or spot instead of moving or changing much.
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Critical Thinking
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