These two texts are made for each other. Students enjoy reading them, teachers enjoy teaching them, and together they make for a lively class discussion. The setting of a futuristic, controlling society contrasts with a traditional, old fashioned town, and yet they are eerily similar. Students can analyze language, dialogue, and writing techniques. When in each story does the reader suspect something is wrong? What clues does the author give, and when, to alert the reader? When is resisting authority appropriate and acceptable, considering the risk? What role do the elder members of each community play? What role do the mothers play? So much to learn and write about from two masterpieces.
