Shout Out - Mr. Langhorst's 4th Period in Liberty, Missouri

Mr. Langhorst's 4th Period American History class at South Valley Jr. High in Liberty, Missouri.

Shout Out - Mr. Langhorst's 1st Period Class at South Valley Jr. High

Mr. Langhorst's Period 1 American History class at South Valley Jr. High in Liberty, Missouri

Parent Comment About the Guerrilla Season Book Blog Project

The following is a comment sent in from the parent of a South Valley Jr. High 8th grader:

My daughter is a student of Mr. Langhorst's. She and I are reading the book together. So far we have had several discussions about the characters and why they act like they do. We are both enjoying this opportunity to learn more about history and our state. Thanks for making this available to us!

Stephanie Green

Week #3 - Pat Asks You A Question and Shares Her Experience on the Gulf Coast From Last Week

I’m back from my trip to the Gulf Coast, where my family and I spent five nights at the Pearlington Recovery Center while doing Katrina Recovery work in Pearlington, Mississippi. It was an unforgettable experience for all of us, on so many levels that it’s just impossible to get into here.
But for the blog’s purposes, it made me think a lot about what it means to have your home and all its contents gone in a heartbeat.

I couldn’t help but compare Hurricane Katrina with the Missouri-Kansas situation during the war, where both individual farms like Mr. Stone’s and entire communities like Lawrence, Kansas, and Osceola, Missouri – to name just two -– were destroyed by people on both sides of the conflict. And then there was the infamous Order #11, when the Union cleared out everybody in four Missouri border counties and burned all their homes and farms, leaving a desolate landscape that must have seemed eerily similar to some of the wiped-out communities I saw on the Gulf Coast.

So this week I have two questions:

#1 - If you were faced with losing your home to destruction and could save only one thing (other than your and your family’s lives!), what would it be?

#2 - And if you have ever been so unfortunate as to have this happen in your own life – lose your home to a flood, a fire, a tornado – what was that like for you?

Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.

Pat's Experience on the Gulf Coast Last Week

From left: Kayla Adams, 16, of Marquette High School, and ElizabethAngelo and Karen Bossaller, both 18, of Lafayette High School, workat tiling Linda and Joe’s laundry room in Pearlington, Mississippi.

Seems I just can’t get away from Missouri – not that I want to, of course. Soon after arriving at the Pearlington Recovery Center in Mississippi, we chatted with some high school students who were alsospending their spring break doing recovery work … and then learned they were from Missouri! Turns out there were about a hundred of them– 73 students, the rest faculty – from the four public high schools in the Rockwood School District: Lafayette in Ballwin; Eureka in Eureka; Marquette in Chesterfield, and Rockwood Summit in Fenton.(These towns are on the eastern side of the state, near St. Louis.)The next day, my family and I found ourselves working in the samehome as one of the Missouri crews. Here’s a picture of three of the girls getting ready to tile a room. Yes, they did it all: Cut the tiles with a wet saw, cemented them to the floor, placed the spacers,and returned the following day to do the grouting. And it looked great when they were done. Meanwhile, their classmates were busy sheetrocking a bedroom ceiling. Wow.

Shout Out to Westfair Christian Academy in the Land of Lincoln

Sending a shout out to the WCA!

This was taken when the 7th through 10th grade classes from Westfair Christian Academy (WCA) went to the Abraham Lincoln museum and Library in Springfield, IL as part of our unit on the Civil War.

The 7th and 8th graders read Guerrilla Season last month and now the 9th and 10th graders are reading it and blogging with you all.

Thanks for joining our blog project Westfair Christian Academy - you rock!

Week 3 Welcome

Hello and welcome to Week 3 of the Guerrilla Season 2008 book blog project covering the dates of March 25 through March 30. This week we encourage all participants to read Chapters 18 through 27, which covers pages 155 to 242 in the novel. We are roughly half way through the project. The students from South Valley Jr. High in Liberty are just returning from their spring break and will be back in school on March 25th.

If you are reading the novel with us we encourage you to send a quick note to us at speakingofhistory@gmail.com Also, if you are just dropping to take a quick peek at the project we would also be interested in your thoughts and reactions.

Have fun and happy reading. We think we have some great discussion questions for you this week. We recently had visitors drop in from Iran and the United Kingdom!

Final Project Options

At the end of the Guerrilla Season book blog project we are asking each student participant to complete one of the following options as a final project. There are five options which should appeal to a variety of learning styles. Please choose a minimum of one - if you wish to do more than one that would be awesome.

These projects will be due on midnight of April 4, 2008. We will be posting some examples of student projects on the blog so we encourage you to turn in a digital copy of your work (graphic, word document, MP3 file, etc.) to the following e-mail: bookblogproject@gmail.com

Please choose a minimum of one - if you wish to do more than one that would be awesome. Your project is worth 25 possible points.

Option#1 - Design a Book Cover
Imagine that Pat Hughes has contacted you to design a new cover for the paperback version of Guerrilla Season. The cover should include the name of the novel and the name of the author. You decide what images you want on the cover that represent the novel. The image should fit on a standard sheet of paper – around 8” by 10”. The image needs to be in full color and send as an image to the e-mail address.

Option #2 - Write an Alternate Ending to the Novel
Here is your chance to write a different ending to the novel Guerrilla Season. You can change the last couple of pages or just simply add on to the current ending. Your alternate ending should be at least 200 words.

Option #3 - Interview a Character
Sit down and conduct an interview with any of the characters from Guerrilla Season. Your interview should be a minimum of 5 questions. You can turn in a typed paper copy of your interview or record the interview in audio format using the Audacity program and then turn in the MP3 file as your final project.

Option #4 - Comic Book Scene
Take a favorite scene from the novel and create a 9 panel comic strip depicting the scene. You can use makers or colored pencils. Be sure to include some text on the comic strip and include a short description of the scene you are depicting in your comic.

Option #5 - Poem
Write a poem inspired from the novel. You can focus on a character, an event, an emotion or a feeling. You are free to use any format you wish for your poem. You may turn in a typed copy of your poem or turn in an audio version recorded with the Audacity program.

Week #3 Podcast - Supernatural Events and Why This Topic?

Hello. This week when you listen to the Guerrilla Season podcast you'll hear about some supernatural things that started to happened to author Pat Hughes as she wrote the novel. She will also answer one of the most commonly asked questions on the blog during the project: "Why did you decide to write about Missouri and this particular time period?".

To listen just click on the direct link and it will play on your computer. You may also download to your computer and listen on your i-Pod or MP3 player.



Direct link to listen to Guerrilla Season Podcast #3 - Supernatural Events and Why This Topic? - MP3 Format - 13:30 Minutes

Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.

Week #3 - General Discussion Question - What Do You Think About the Project

Think of this place as a sort of local coffee shop. If you have a comment or specific response to a question posted as a blog entry please post it there but if you have a general comment and don't know where else to post it please do so here. It might be a question or just a general observation - go ahead and post it.

Visitors to the blog - please feel free to leave a comment at this post about your impressions on the book blog project. We'd love to hear from you.

Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.

Week #3 - Actual Oath in Liberty, Missouri Museum

Above is an actual oath used in Clay County in 1862 given to those thought to be guerrillas aiding the southern effort. This is an earlier version than the one quoted in the novel Guerrilla Season but is very similar to what Matt was forced to sign in the field. Click on the picture to see a larger version.

This artifact is currently on display in Liberty, Missouri at the Clay County Historical Society Museum located downtown on the historic square. Check it out if you live in Liberty. It is an incredible artifact!

Check out the name of the county on the oath - HOWARD! Very odd considering that Howard was the name Pat used for the last name of Matt's family and she had never seen a copy of this artifact until today!

Here are some comments from Pat:

Eric and everybody - What an awesome post! To be able to see the real thing -- it just chills me. Oh that I were in Liberty and could see it in person. But the wonders of the Web are once again brought to bear. ...

Especially interesting to me is the use of the term "provisional government" - i.e. the oath-taker is promising to bear true allegiance to the "provisional government of the state of Missouri," meaning the Union government that took over Missouri after running elected Gov. Claiborne Jackson & his government out of the state.

I also wanted to point out that this oath, dated 1862, pre-dates the oath that Matt takes in "Guerrilla Season." I found Matt's oath in Michael Fellman's "Inside War: The Guerrilla Conflict in Missouri During the American Civil War." Fellman writes that in 1863, Union officials "codified a system of oaths and bonds which had been developed in various forms in the field. When a suspected guerrilla sympathizer was arrested he would take the following oath:" Fellman then gives the oath that I used in "Guerrilla Season."

Thanks Eric for showing us this amazing piece of history! - Pat

Week #3 - Discussion Question - The Oath

In Chapter 25 Matt is forced to take an oath to pledge his loyalty to the Union. He almost cannot do it but does anyway because he fears what would happen to him if he doesn't say it. (pages 226 to 230)

Have you ever had to say something that you knew wasn't how you truly felt but you had to do it because it would result in fewer problems for yourself or others?

Please answer this question by posting a comment to this blog entry by clicking on the "comments" link below this post. Please remember to use either your first name only or no name. Any comments with full names will not be posted. Thanks.

Week #3 - Ask Pat - What Are You Thinking?

Here is your chance to ask the author of Guerrilla Season a question. Go ahead and leave a comment - she is answering any question you have. We know you have a question so go ahead and ASK PAT!

Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.

Week #3 - Pat Asks You - The Civil War and the War in Iraq

The style of warfare used in Missouri to fight much of the Civil War is described as "guerrilla warfare" - a method of combat by which a smaller group of combatants attempts to use its mobility to defeat a larger, and consequently less mobile, army (source: wikipedia)

If you have been following the war in Iraq this term is often used to describe the warfare which currently takes place on the streets of that country every day.

What similarities do you see with the guerrilla warfare tactics used in Missouri in 1863 and Iraq in 2008?



Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.

Week #3 - Question About Favorite and Least Favorite Characters

You should be a little more than half way through the novel now and the characters have been developed. Tell us who your favorite character in the novel is right now and who your least favorite character is right now. Please give an example or reason why you feel this way about the characters. Of course there are no right or wrong answers, just your opinion.

Please leave your answer below by click on the "comments" link and then responding using your pen name under your comment and then selecting "anonymous" Please use correct grammar and remember to not include your first and last name.