Literature Thunderbolt Kid

• Engels
• Middelbare school
• havo
• Leerjaar 4

Period 4

PTA 4

• Literature (3 books)

• Follow Up: 43-58
• Stepping Stones: Linking words

Title and cover

What do you think about looking at the title and the cover?

Blurb

In this deeply funny and personal memoir, Bill Bryson travels back in time to explore the ordinary kid he once was, in the curious world of 1950s Middle America. It was a happy time, when almost everything was good for you, including DDT, cigarettes and nuclear fallout. This is a book about one boy’s growing up. But in Bryson’s hands, it becomes everyone’s story, one that will speak volumes – especially to anyone who has ever been young.

Blurb

Are you interested in reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid? Why (not)?

Genre: memoir

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid is a memoir about Bill Bryson’s childhood in America. 

In this assignment you will first have a closer look at this genre and what you expect of the book.

• Look up online what the genre of ‘memoir’ entails. Give a short account of your findings.

• Have you ever read a memoir before? If so, what was its title and what did you think of it?
  

• Whose memoir would you be interested in reading? About what period/event in their life? If you are not interested in reading any memoirs, explain why that is.
  

Start reading

Read the ‘Preface and Acknowledgements’ on page 13 – 14.

• Do you like the way the preface is written? Why (not)? What makes it so?
  
• Can you understand why Bill Bryson has chosen to write about his childhood?

• Homework check!

About what decade did Bill Bryson write in this book?

19002000

Where did Bryson grow up?

1. Des Moines, Iowa
2. New York, New York
3. Houston, Texas
4. Doylestown, Pennsylvania

What kind of exercise did Bryson's father do a lot?

1. yoga
2. isometrics
3. baseball
4. dancercise

What kind of job did Bryson's parents have?

1. baseball player & housewife
2. they were both writers
3. they both worked in a store
4. traveling salesman & housewife

Memoir?

Chapter 1: Hometown

page 16/19 I CAN’T IMAGINE...

page 22/33 THE ONLY DOWNSIDE...

What is Bryson's writing style?

• facts
• humour

• Silent reading
• Next slide: Birth of a Superhero (page 94)

• Who or what is the Thunderbolt Kid?
  
• Give a description of the Thunderbolt Kid? Why was he created?
• Did you have a similar experience as a child? How did you use your imagination back then?
  

Write down your answers using your own words in full English sentences. (exam practice)

alter-ego

childhood memories

pro and cons about growing up in the fifties vs now

You should have read the first 4 chapters by now.

Keep reading, but during the next weeks we will also recap the other 2 books.

(you have 3 weeks left to finish all 3 of them!!!)

Bryson paints the 50's as an innocent, almost idyllic time. Was it?

What was childhood like for American children in the 1950s? What concerns and excitements did they have?

How was Bill's childhood different than what a child might experience today? What things have changed? What has remained the same?

Discuss Bryson's mother, a professional woman, and his father, who was also absent a good deal of the time. How did their manner of parenting strike you? Do we have a different concept of parenting today?

1. Bryson paints the 50's as an innocent, almost idyllic time. Was it?
2. Does the childhood Bryson describes take place in a lost America? He paints a rich portrait of community ties and identity. To what degree do those ties still exist? What has been lost? Consider the effects of TV and the computer.
 
3. Discuss Bryson's mother, a professional woman, and his father, who was also absent a good deal of the time. How did their manner of parenting strike you? Do we have a different concept of parenting today?

nostalgia, funny, quirky, hodge-podge, hilarious, 1950s, memories

Bill writes, "I can't imagine there has ever been a more gratifying time or place to be alive than American in the 1950s" (Chap. 1, p. 5). What does he mean by this? What evidence does he present in the book to back this statement up?
 
Describe the transformation that occurred in Des Moines during the 1950s and after. What changed about the city? How does Bill feel about the changes?
 

How was Bill's childhood different than what a child might experience today? What things have changed? What has remained the same?
 
Describe Bill's relationship with his father and mother. How did he feel about them? How did their personalities and interests shape Bill's?
 
What was childhood like for American children in the 1950s? What concerns and excitements did they have?
 
How did Bill become the Thunderbolt Kid? What did he add to the story?

Author

Before reading The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, let’s have a look at who the author is.

1 Look up who Bill Bryson is online.

1a What is his full name?

1b When and where was he born?

1c What type of books has he written?

2 Some of his best-known books are Notes from a Small Island, A Short History or Nearly Everything, A Walk in the Woods and The Mother Tongue.

2a Look up these titles. What are these books about?

2b Would you like to read any of these books? Why (not)?