Open Your Eyes

Unlike most kids his age, 10 year old Thomas Ryan spends his summers taking care of his blind grandfather. The blindness, he's learned to deal with. It's the old man's bigotry that Thomas finds unbearable. He's witnessed his grandfather disrespect everyone from gay men to a Jewish doctor. However, when his grandfather offends his best friend who happens to be African-American, Thomas devises a clever plan to rid his grandfather of his bigotry once and for all. With the help of a few loyal friends, he just might be able to pull it off. Along with the story itself, the following supplementary learning materials are included: a personal vocabulary building activity for each chapter that is designed to help the students work with context clues and introduce them to some possibly unfamiliar words they will encounter throughout the reading; K.W.L. charts designed to assess what the students already (K)now, what they (W)ant to know, and what they'll (L)earn regarding such topics as the Civil Rights Movement; creative writing prompts typically to be written from the perspective of one of the main characters of the story; round table discussion questions and/or topics to provide the students with a suitable platform upon which to express their opinions and hold healthy debates with classmates; and a group of reading comprehension questions to accompany each chapter.