Pete says, “My folks left me alone, which not many folks would be good enough to do. But mine were different.” (p. 98) Explain how his parents are different. How does Pete’s view of his parents change from the beginning of the novel to the end?
Pete describes Rufus as practical and a confirmed atheist. How are the two related in Pete’s mind? Explain the statement, “The whole world might be a question mark, but Rufus stayed a good hard period.” (p. 11) Discuss how Pete might be considered the question mark.
CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES
Discuss the literary device of foreshadowing. Ask students to write a brief paper explaining how the chalk dust of the cross in the first chapter foreshadows the end of Pete’s story.
Design an advertisement for Rev. Canon’s revival that might appear in the newspaper of Pete’s town.
Write a letter to the newspaper about Rev. Carson after he left town with Darlene Cook.
Some critics believe that character is the most important literary element in a novel. Others feel that it is plot. Which element to do you feel is stronger in A Fine White Dust? Write a brief paper that supports your opinion.
A Fine White Dust was named a Newbery Honor Book in 1987. The chair of the Newbery Award Committee is charged with preparing the brief remarks that honor the book at the Newbery/Caldecott dinner. Write the remarks that the Newbery chair might have written about Rylant’s novel.
Rylant’s use of figurative language gives the novel a poetic quality. For example, “Big Joanie Fulton pounding away on the organ like some butcher pounding at a piece of meat” is a simile. Find other similes in the novel.
Pete says that the summer of the Preacher Man just strengthened his friendship with Rufus. Write a short personal essay about a special friendship that you have with someone who is very different from you.
Pete sees his parents quite differently by the end of the novel. Make a Mother’s Day and Father’s Day card that Pete might give to his parents in the year following the summer of the Preacher Man.
Prepared by Pat Scales, an independent consultant and retired school librarian in Greenvilee, SC
Cynthia Rylant says:
“For me, A Fine White Dust was always meant to be about friendship, betrayal, and the fall of a hero. It’s set in Appalachia because that’s where I grew up. And I was friends with a boy much like Rufus (in fact, Rufus was his last name). Pete, the main character, is a seeker of truth and this leads him into a kind of darkness. And like all seekers, he is lost for a while. But not for always.”
Cynthia Rylant won the Newbery Medal for Missing May and a Newbery Honor for A Fine White Dust. She is also the author of two Caldecott Honor picture books, The Relatives Came and When I Was Young in the Mountains, as well as the popular Henry and Mudge and Cobble Street Cousins series. She lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Cynthia Rylant, A Fine White Dust
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