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Copywork
About This Passage
These lines contain the coldest bargain in the whole book. Miss Katherine declares a truth — that every person is equal in God's eyes — and the sheriff twists her truth into a trap. If Sam and he are equal, the sheriff jeers, then why will she kiss one and not the other? He offers her a deal so cruel that the offer itself is part of the cruelty: kiss the man you hate, and the man you love will only be run out of town instead of hanged. Copying this passage helps a young reader notice how Sachar uses the sheriff's laughter as punctuation. The laugh appears twice, and each time it lets us hear a man enjoying the suffering he is causing. The bargain is meant to make Miss Katherine feel that Sam's life is her fault — a classic move of cruel people who hold power. Noticing how dialogue carries moral weight is one of the most important things a middle-grade writer can learn.
'We're all equal under the eyes of God,' she declared. The sheriff laughed. 'Then if Sam and I are equal, why won't you kiss me?' He laughed again. 'I'll make you a deal. One sweet kiss, and I won't h...
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Discussion Questions
Narration Prompt
Retell Chapter 26 in your own words, beginning with the empty schoolhouse on the morning after the kiss, moving through Miss Katherine's desperate run to the sheriff, the burning of the schoolhouse, Sam's murder on the lake, and ending with Kate Barlow's three-day transformation into an outlaw.
Discussion Questions
- What evidence in the chapter shows that Trout Walker, the sheriff, and the mob were all working together against Sam and Miss Katherine, even though they never say so openly?
- The sheriff tells Miss Katherine, 'It ain't against the law for you to kiss him. Just for him to kiss you.' How does this one sentence reveal the deepest unfairness at the heart of the chapter, and what does it tell you about how Green Lake's laws treated different people?
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Vocabulary Builder
Item 1
The same in value, rights, or importance as another person or thing.
Item 2
Said something firmly and clearly so everyone could hear it was true.
Item 3
A man whose job is to keep a town safe and enforce the law.
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Critical Thinking
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