• the themes of the play
• the setting of the Dust Bowl
• why he felt it was so important to do the play (knowing the person who wrote all those songs, especially “This Land is Your Land”)
• how he compiled it (using Woody Gutherie’s songs and parts of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath and Karen Hesse’s Into the Dust).
• what songs you knew and the ones you didn’t
• the way he cast it (three Woodies, for instance)
• Mexican illegal immigrants and their deportations

When you write your review you might want to begin with a description of the play and some of what Mr. Gallagher spoke about. Then you might want to comment on elements you liked:  the characters, costumes, the staging, the lighting,  the video projections, and more. You might want to single out a particularly favorite bit — perhaps the deportation number, the scene with the bread, or something else.    Were there performers you thought were especially good — mentioned them and say why!

Since we would like to make your  blogs public soon, so be sure to proofread carefully (checking for punctuation, sense, capitals, and spelling). Make sure that you have a good topic sentence, some supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence, too.

Also, please include a link to The Dalton School so your readers can learn more about where you saw the play.

To help you, here is a list of characters:

• Pete Seeger
• Woody Guthrie (Act I)
• Woody Guthrie (Act II)
• Pa Guthrie
• Ma Guthrie
• Clara
• Citizen
• Banker
• Farmer
• Young Woody
• Dust Bowl Ma
• Dust Bowl Pa
• Dust Bowl Daughter
• Man on Train
• Woman on Train
• Hobo Brown
• Hobo Girl
• Schwartz
• Steinbeck
• Pa Joad
• Ma Joad
• Tom Joad
• Rose O’ Shar’n
• Tire Seller
• Two Children
• Big Bill
• Mae
• Al
• Trucker
• Ragged Man
• Sheriff
• Deputy
• Mexican Lady
• Mexican Girl
• Angry Man
• Zilphia Horton
• Worker
• Stewart Udall
• Bob Dylan

I am coming to save your friend’s life, and my own.
I must ask two favors. First, you must write me a letter.

As you know, that is from the mysterious first note found by Miranda in Rebecca Stead’s When You Reach Me, the amazing Newbery-winning book I just finished reading to you. It was very cool to listen to you yesterday as you tried to sort out what was what.  And now today it is your turn — to write your own letters about this remarkable book — on your blogs.  My hope is that you will all write thoughtful and interesting ones that I can mention on my blog as I did last year.  But I can’t do that until the blogs are public so I hope you will be ready to do that with this post.  (And when we finish the mural I will put an image of that up here and on my blog for people to enjoy.)

First of all, a fun tidbit.  The book takes place, as you know, in 1979 and the television show, $20,000 Pyramid plays a major part in the story.  Go here to see a clip of the original show and then come back….

Back? Good.  Now here are a few ideas of things to consider for your blog post —we’ll add a few more today as well. (And if you want to read my New York Times review here it is.)

• The title — what do you think of it?  Would there be a better one? (One person I know suggested The Laughing Man —what do you think of that?)
• The cover — some don’t like it. Do you?   Explain why it is what it is.
• Chapter titles are mostly “Things that…” which is the way to do your answer for The $20,000 Pyramid.
• How did you feel about it being SO mysterious?  Were you able to wait until all became clear?
• Veil metaphor — when was it lifted for you?
• A Wrinkle in Time
• For kids who are comfortable with many different threads and things going on all at once.
• What suspicions did you have? Were you right or wrong?
• Do you get the time travel stuff?  Does it matter if you don’t?

Remember your mini-reviews for the Lower East Side Walking tour online guide book?  And your reviews of Oliver!?  Remember Pauline Frommer’s lesson on what makes a great review?  The use of so many senses? Then there is my review of The Graveyard Book It was a lengthy process, but worth it in the end. Even the author was pleased!  (See here and here.)

So there are all sorts of reviews and I now invite you to write as many as you like on your blog.  But you have to think carefully about what your audience is looking for when you read the review.  For a book, they want to know if it is something they want to read.  For a movie, is it one they would like to see. For a restaurant, is it a place they would like to eat at.  Each is a different type of experience.  I didn’t need to write about smell and taste for my book review, but you certainly did when writing about the restaurants you visited on your LES tour.  Movie reviews are different too as you want to focus on the visual aspect of the experience.

You might want to review:

• books
• movies
• restaurants
• children’s programs
• tourist and vacation places
• play
• stores
• television shows
• hotels
• camps
• music
• pet
• museums and art galleries
• games

And best of all, you can always categorize these as “reviews” because we are going to teach you how to make categories today!