This Book Club Online activity is intended to link Book Club classrooms around the country in a discussion of the book Shiloh by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. The activity assumes that all participating classes will begin the book on Monday, October 5, and follow the daily reading assignments outlined in the lesson plan.

The lesson plan assumes a basic knowledge of the Book Club program, as outlined in the teacher's handbook and videotape. You should be able to follow the lesson plan without referring to these materials, but they provide the background information and support (including blackline masters) that will help you get the most from Book Club.

Introducing Students to the Online Discussion

In the days leading up to the online discussion, you should build students' excitement for the activity and prepare them to take part in it. Tell them that they're going to read a great book and talk about it with their classmates in Book Club. Each day they'll also have the chance to communicate with other students across the United States who are reading Shiloh. By using the internet, they can share the best ideas that come out of their reading logs and book club discussions with their peers in other regions.

Introduce students to the Student Comment Form and the Student Comments About Shiloh page, and make sure they understand how the online discussion will work. You'll want to give some advance thought to how you will integrate this online communication into your daily routine. For example, you might set aside a block of time each day when students can take turns at the computer, or you might arrange a rotating schedule so that each child gets to write in every other day.

Accessing the Lesson Plan

Use these links to go to individual lessons for Shiloh, to read the comments from teachers and students that we've received so far, or to submit your own comments via e-mail:

Book Summary

Eleven-year-old Marty Preston lives in rural West Virginia with his parents and two sisters. He loves to roam the countryside, although he can't bring himself to shoot any living thing with his rifle. One day he meets a shy beagle who seems afraid of its own shadow. Marty forms an instant bond with the dog, whom he names Shiloh. Although Marty feels certain that Shiloh has been abused, his father insists that the dog be returned to his owner, Judd Travers. Judd kicks Shiloh the moment he sees him and promises that if he ever runs off again, Judd will "whup the daylights out of him."

For the next few days, Marty can think of nothing but Shiloh. His family has barely enough money to feed the people in it, let alone a pet, but he resolves to earn money somehow and buy the dog from Judd. Then one afternoon he hears Shiloh out in his yard. He knows that the dog has escaped and that he can't take him back to Judd, no matter what. He fences in a small area on his family's land and hides Shiloh there. He knows that it's wrong to lie to his parents, but he can't believe that it's right to let an animal be abused, either.

Days go by and Marty finds himself telling more lies to cover up the first one. Eventually his mother suspects that something is going on and discovers Marty and Shiloh in their hiding place. She agrees not to tell Marty's father until the next day, although it pains her to keep a secret from her husband. That night Shiloh is attacked by a German shepherd who jumps the fence. Marty's secret is out, and Shiloh is nearly killed. He and his father take him to their doctor, who manages to save the dog's life.

While Shiloh is healing at the Prestons' house, Judd shows up and demands to know why they have his dog. Marty is forced to tell him the whole story. His mother asks if they can buy Shiloh, but Judd refuses. He agrees to let the Prestons keep Shiloh only for another few days, while he heals. On the morning that Shiloh is to be returned, Marty decides to tell Judd that he won't give the dog back. On the way to Judd's house, though, he sees Judd shoot a doe. The deer is out of season, and the county game warden is known to be strict. Marty finally has the leverage he needs to buy Shiloh.

Judd does not enter willingly into the bargain, however. He agrees to sell the dog to Marty for twenty hours of hard labor, and he scribbles the agreement on a scrap of paper. After several days of treating Marty like a slave, Judd calls him a fool and says that the piece of paper means nothing because there was no legal witness. Marty refuses to give up, though, and tells Judd that he's going to keep his end of the bargain anyway. When the two weeks are up, Marty's stubborn integrity has made an impression on Judd. Shiloh finally belongs to the boy who loves him.

Themes

This powerful story, which won the Newbery Award in 1992, is as much about personal integrity as it is about a boy's love for a dog. Deciding to lie to his parents is very difficult for Marty, and his dishonesty haunts him from the moment he begins telling lies to keep his secret. However, he cannot betray what he truly feels to be right: protecting Shiloh from an abusive master. The final bargain between Marty and Judd also brings up the issue of integrity, and Marty shows great insight when he appeals to Judd's own sense of integrity to make the bargain stick.

The story also raises issues of right and wrong, and how people decide what's right in a situation that's not clear-cut. Obeying the law is usually the right thing to do, but Marty faces some thorny dilemmas when other concerns override his respect for the letter of the law. People's emotions can also pull them in different directions as they try to sort out moral issues. For example, Marty has both positive and negative feelings about his decision to try to save Shiloh by keeping the dog a secret from his parents. And Judd's feelings of insecurity lead him to feel it's OK to abuse animals, even though most readers would agree that his behavior is wrong.

Special Classroom Library

Other books by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor include Shiloh Season; Saving Shiloh; Alice In-Between; Alice in Rapture, Sort Of; Reluctantly Alice; Beetles, Lightly Toasted; and One of the Third Grade Thonkers. (Naylor communicates with her readers at The Alice Fan Club web site.) The moral issues surrounding deceiving one's parents are treated in a sensitive and complex manner in the book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt. It would be appropriate to include any of these books in a special classroom library while students are reading Shiloh.