Independe Independent Reading Activity
Activity One
Who is the author of this book?
Trevor J. Colgan
What type of text, (genre), is this book, (ex. horror, suspense, romance)?
Sports.
Is there a dedication in this book? What is it?
The dedication is to his Son Jack.
What is your impression of the book title? Does it fit with the story so far? In what way does it fit?
At first I thought it was going to be about some kind of sports team. The title fits the story because it
is about the actual sports team.
Is there a prologue to the story? What role do prologues have in novels?
Yes there is, prologues give you the information on the people you are reading about now and what happened
before these event are happening.
Are there any illustrations in your novel? Do you personally like to have illustrations on your book? How
important do you think the cover of a novel is in your book selection? How about the size of the print and pages – do
they play a role in your book selections? Discuss.
No there are no illustrations in my novel. Personally I like illustrations in my books. A cover can be quite
important to the person who is choosing a book. It lets the reader know what the contents are before reading it in a sense
the size of the book and the font size affects how I pick a book because I don’t want to have an overly large book with
small font, when I read a book I want to be small but not too small.
How does the author capture your attention in the first few lines of a story?
He says that the game that the characters are going to play in is the most important game of the year.
From what point of view is the story told?
This story is told form the point of view of Luke.
What is the setting of the story?
In Ireland in small towns.
Does this setting remind you of anything from your own experience, (another book that you have read or place
or places that you may have visited)?
Not it does not remind me of any other story I’ve read.
Do you think that author spends more time describing the action or describing the characters? Is the plot
fast paced or slow?
The author spends more time describing the actions being done at a fairly slow pace.
Quite boring really.
Independent Reading Activity
Activity Two
Who is the most important character of your book? Why?
Luke is the most important, because he is the team captain and the story takes place from his point of view.
All the events that take place in the story affect him.
Mark two places that where the protagonist’s talk or action reveals something about themselves. List
the two pages below, in your words what is the protagonist doing or saying, and how does this reflect on the protagonist’s
personality?
Independent Reading Activity
Activity Three
Do you feel that the language that the author uses is fairly "readable" to you or, does it seem that you are
struggling with the words and don’t know many of the meanings?
It is easy reading at most points. Some of the terms he uses are fairly weird.
What do the first few scenes of the story tell us of the plot and how the story will unfold?
The first few scenes kind of tell us that there will be conflict between Luke, Ella and Martina.
Who are the emerging minor characters, (antagonists), of the story?
Ella, Martina, Tonka Mrs. Hendy and Wesley Adams.
Of these characters, who seems to play the most important role?
Martina seems to be more important. Because Luke seemed more upset at her in the beginning due to a conflict.
What are your predictions at this point, as to how the story’s plot will unfold?
I honestly do not know. Things seem to be quite random in Luke life. But if things happen in the way they
presently are his parents may die.
Independent Reading Activity
Activity Four
How is the story making you feel? (Mood)
This story makes me feel bored. It is a sports kind of book, I am not overly a fan
of soccer books.
But later on it kind of makes me sad because his life is going down a proverbial toilet
How is the protagonist’s character developing at this point of the story?
At this point he seems to be quite upset. His life is kind of falling apart even with the major achievement
at the beginning. But following that he gets a large dose of bad "luck"
His sister breaks up with her boyfriend and him and her boyfriend were quite good friends.Along with him breaking
up with his girlfriend himself.
What are the emerging conflicts in this story?
With the issue of breaking up with his girlfriend he gets into a very angry and depressed mood. There is a
lot of friction between Luke and his friends; it looks like they are getting annoyed with Luke being the team captain.
Are some of these conflicts subjects that you can relate to? Discuss.
I can relate to the whole losing his girlfriend bit and being angry. If my girlfriend broke up with me because
of something like "progress" with her life id be quite upset. If my girlfriend broke up with me because she had the chance
to become famous, and I was the one who got her to that point it would be very disconcering.
How is the pace of the story? Does the plot seem to move slowly over a day or does it move very quickly over
days?
The plot is very slow. It describes very minor details and seems to drag on for too long.
Independent Reading Activity
Activity Five
Is there a dedication in this book? What is it?
The dedication in the book is to the authors’ son Jack.
Who published the book?
The company "Definitions" published this novel.
When was the book published?
2001
Write a brief biography of the author. The biography can be no longer than 6 sentences.
Trevor Colgan was born and brought up in Dublin. Only in his twenties and hailed by the Irish press as 'the
next Roddy Doyle', Trevor is certainly a literary talent to watch.
Independent Reading Activity
Activity Six
How does the protagonist change at the end of the story?
He becomes a more happy kind of person who understands that his personal gains are not the most important
things to the world and the people around him.
What do you feel the climax of the story is?
There wasn’t actually one true climax to the story. All problems brought up were solved throughout the
entire story, not at once. All problems were solved gradually.
Were all the conflicts of the story resolved?
Yes, by the end of the story all conflicts listed earlier in this assignment have been resolved. Luke and
his girlfriend got back together and Martina got back together with her boyfriend.
How did you feel about how the characters behaved in the story? Was it typical or unbelievable?
Was the ending believable? Discuss you opinion.
Do any of the characters remind you of anyone in your life? Discuss.
Martin and Ronald remind me of my cousin and her ex-boyfriend.
Luke had a good friendship with Ronald and they hung out a lot. When they broke up it seemed like the friendship
was over.
The same with me and my cousins boyfriend.
Does the book remind you of any other book that you have read?
This book does not remind me of another story I’ve read. Probably because I don’t read many sports
novels or novels in general, and usually when I read it is a completely different kind of novel compared to my last one read.
What do you think the theme of the book is? Explain your answer.
I think this stories theme is generalized life. There are good times and then there are the bad time. And
the times in which we must get through our own times of adversity.
Would read another book by this author? Why or why not?
Yes I would. I would because I need to read the first 2 parts of this story to FULLY understand why each person
acted the way that they did when they did. To understand the characters more.
