John+M.

Book Group Test
**__ Test Questions for Dies Drear __** 1) I think that the most interesting scene in the Dies Drear book is when Thomas discovers his first cavern. First he had found a small wooden button. It was on a small carved door. The carvings were petals. When Thomas pressed the button the twins started having a “temper tantrum.” Thomas thought about ghosts and said “//not very nice ghosts!//” Thomas figured out that when he pressed the button, a hole opened up on the veranda steps and a cold breeze tickled the twins. Since Thomas is a curious fellow, he decided to go into the hole. He looked inside and fell down. The hole was around five feet deep so he fell about five feet. He looked up and saw some steps. Thomas thought “I //should have just gone down the steps//” I don’t think that it would have made a difference if he went down the stairs because I think that Thomas would have fallen down the old steps. Thomas always brought a flashlight wherever he went and it was not broken (from the fall.) he turned the flashlight on and saw were he was in a “circle of crumbly brick walls. He looked around. There was a path leading to darkness, so he followed it. There was dirt and rock on either side of him. He thought that the whole house was pressing against him and that made him feel frightened. Everything turned cold and wet. He said “just one of the springs.” Suddenly the tunnel went upward. A sound came toward, making his flashlight fall. The fall of the flashlight made it go out. Thomas felt for the flashlight but he could not find it! …suddenly Thomas heard wailing. He screamed and fled into the darkness of the tunnel. Next the walls of the cavern lifted up and he was in the kitchen of the house of Dies Drear. I chose this scene because I think that scenes when Thomas is in a secret passage is the most exiting. I like these scenes too because those passages are hidden. Comment from Shirley: John, you have described this scene with remarkable clarity and detail. You obviously know this book well. Well done! Re-read your sentences and see if you could vary them in length. They are all very short.You have not answered the second part of the question and have not given reasons why you chose this section. 2) I think that the book //The House of Dies Drear// would be a good name for the book if the book's plot had more to do with Dies Drear than all of the caverns and history. The reason of this title is: //Dies Drear is a man who helped slaves escape. He had three escaped slaves. To make things worse, bounty hunters were after the escaped slaves. They found the slaves and killed them but only one escaped. The bounty hunter also found Dies Drear. The third slave is said to hunt the// **house of Dies Drear** //until this day.// If I were the author of this book //I// would have named the book //The Caverns of Pluto// because the reader would not know if the book was talking about the planet (or not any more) or something else. Another possibility is that I could call it //Under the House of Dies Drears Steps.// The reason I would call the book this is because most of the book is underground. The reason that I think the book is called //The House of Dies Drears// is that I think that Virginia Hamilton thought up the name of the book first and she thought that she would write more on Dies Drear. Comment from Shirley: Another interesting response, John. I am not sure what you meant in your first italics and the blue "of". Reread it and see if you could make it clearer. I love your suggested titles and the reasons you gave for these ideas. Kenny: I thought you had great thoughts about the title of the book. I like those title but they give a lot away about the book.
 * __ John Madalengoitia 4/16/10 __**

Comment from Clay: I really like your ideas about the title. It was also very descriptive and interesting. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

= = = = =Dies Drear= =HELLO ALL DIES DREAR BOOK READERS!!!!= = = = = = = = =

I think that there is nothing in the black chest because I think that if you put weight in the chest, the chest will drop. The chest is attached to a pulley attached to the tapestries. So when you lift the tapestries, there will be an entrance to another cavern. Maybe the next cavern will have more treasure. I think this because the chest is a perfect plot for the next book (If there is one). The only problem is that it will be a not very interesting book if all they do is open the chest and find treasure. I definitely think that the plan when Thomas, his father, Mayhew and the horse dress as demons and scare the Darrows worked. The only problem was that when they scared the Darrows they started laughing, so one of the Darrows saw that it was a trick. I think that this is a problem because the Darrows could sue Thomas, his father, Mayhew and that would not be good! Okay, let me just get one thing straight: I would have been to scared to even go to the woods, even if we weren’t scaring the Darrows. I would have told Mr. Small I was sick or I would tell him how scared I was (Hope he understands!) but let us say that I was in that position in the woods- what would I do? I would try to stay down and stay awake! I would probilly wet my pants because I would be really exited!
 * 1.What do think is in the black chest suspended by the chain?**
 * 2.Do you think that the plan of scaring the Darrows worked, what surprised you about it?**
 * 3. If you were in Thomas' place in the woods, would you have been scared? Give reasons for your answer.**

=//**__Here is my answers for Q. 5:__**//=

//I think that the Thomas and his father were taking a risk by going into the cave because the stalagmites or even the whole cave could collapse on them because Mr. Pluto said there was a cave in one of the tunnels before and also caves can be unstable. To get to the cavern there is a long slippery ramp. Then you can see a huge cavern with stalagmites sticking out from the ceiling and great big tapestries hanging down from rods on the ceiling. There is also a large “window” made of tons of hand blown glass bottle that looks pretty old. Pesty likes to clean and polish the glass. The object that surprised me most was the table that Mr. Pluto has. It surprised me because I could not figure out how Mr. Pluto got it//

**2. Describe Mayhew's plan and tell what you think the results will be.**
//**Mayhew is planning to: (1)convince Pluto to go to the hospital because the Darrows will come and get caught.(2) The Darrows come because they heard of Pluto leaving and they want treasure.(3) Thomas Mayhew and Mr. & Mrs. Small Dress as ghosts and scare the Darrows so hard That they never come back. I think that the plan will go according to the plan except that Pluto won’t go to the hospital.**// = =

The reason why I think that Mr. Pluto kept the cavern secret is that I think that Pluto is a historian and Knows that the stuff in the cave Is worth a lot of money. I think this because he owns the house of Dies Drear and the only reason people would buy that house would be because they realized how historical it is.