The Name of This Book Is Secret

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

Who can be the narrator of a story, and what duties and obligations do they have in that role? What are the different kinds of points of view in a story?

Teaching Suggestion: Guided questions may be beneficial to direct class discussion if the question is too broad. For example, students might be asked about their pre-knowledge on first-, second-, and third-person perspectives. They may then be directed to make concrete connections by brainstorming other books they’ve read that have featured either first- or third-person narration. These examples may be used to help students develop a knowledge base of narrative point of view, which they can then reference as they reflect on the effect each kind of narration has on the story being told and its audience, either in a piece of short writing or as part of a larger discussion. This short answer prompt may also be used to introduce the idea of an intrusive narrator, preparing students to analyze fourth-wall breaks and examine the construction of Narrator and Reader as characters in the novel.

• This guide on point of view is a comprehensive resource for exploring the types of point of view, their use in literature, and other related resources.
• This video on point of view from TED-Ed is a brief, informative, and visually engaging resource that defines first-, second-, and third-person narration and explains the purpose of each. The video might be shown in its entirety (about 5 minutes), but the most relevant portion starts at 2:15.

Short Activity

Think about the five senses: sight, smell, sound, taste, and touch. As you will learn in the novel, interactions between the five senses can be a powerful way of gaining unique insights into the world around you. Select your favorite song or a song you know well. If your song were a color, what color would it be? If it were a shape, what shape would it be? How do you think it would feel if you could touch it or taste it? Write down your answers on a piece of paper or create a visual representation using colored pencils or crayons.

Teaching Suggestion: While synesthesia is relatively uncommon, most people associate certain stimuli with unrelated ideas; making connections to familiar associations may be beneficial for helping students transition into thinking about more abstract associations. For example, many students likely associate a particular color with a particular school subject or a particular color with a particular month. The activity may be introduced by prompting students to respond to questions like “What color is February?” or “What color is math?” (The class could take a poll or have a debate!) After students have become comfortable with the concept, students may be directed to make more abstract connections between disparate senses. This activity will prepare students to think about the surprising insights that may come from linking together seemingly unrelated things, preparing them to examine the role of synesthesia and the five senses in the novel to support the theme of Personal Differences.

• “Play a Kandinsky” from Google Arts and Culture is an interactive experiment based on abstract artist Wassily Kandinsky’s painting Yellow-Red-Blue. Kandinsky was a known synesthetic painter who depicted the way that music made him feel. In this virtual experiment, composers have interpreted Kandinsky’s piece to give insight into the sounds and emotions he might have associated with each color. It is presented as an interactive experience in which the viewer can “hear” Kandinsky’s painting as a musical composition. This resource may be used to engage students’ thinking on the interactions across senses and how they can be used to deepen one’s understanding of ideas and emotions.
• “Hearing Colors and Tasting Sounds: What Is Synesthesia?” is an essay written by 16-year-old Erica Frischauf; it was published by the New York Times as a winner in their Student STEM Writing Contest. This brief essay details the types of synesthesia and explores the neurological foundation for the condition, including the connections between the disparate parts of the brain it supports.

Differentiation Suggestion: Because this activity relies on abstract thinking, it may be difficult for students for whom visualization is a challenge. To adapt this activity, teachers may consider presenting selections of music or artwork, pointing out specific elements therein, and prompting students to connect them with other senses or ideas. For example, students may be presented with an artwork, and the teacher may point out the artist’s use of color and guide students to reflect on how the artist may have associated a particular color with a particular emotion. Similarly, students may analyze the sounds in a piece of music and then be provided with a bank of unrelated stimuli from which to create matches with the elements in the song, such as choosing a shape to represent each sound.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Have you ever had to keep a secret? What would have been the consequences if you told someone the secret? How do you decide when to reveal or when to withhold sensitive information? How can sharing secrets influence the bond between two people?

Teaching Suggestion: Prompting students to consider circumstances in their lives where they may have had to keep secrets will help prepare them to analyze the role of secrets as a motif in the novel and connect it to the novel’s theme of Secrecy. This personal connection prompt can segue into an entry point of connection with the Narrator as students consider the Narrator’s internal conflict over revealing the confidential story as a framing device for the narrative.