Scowler: Book review with curriculum resources

Book cover from Daniel Kraus

Kraus, D. (2013). Scowler. [Audiobook version]. Available from Audible.com

Kraus, D. (2013). Scowler. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

*Grade level 11 and up

**2014 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

An intense psychological horror story, Scowler is about 19-year-old Ry Burke, who lives on his family's farm with his mother Jo Beth and little sister Sarah. His abusive father Marvin has been in prison for the past eight years for trying to murder Ry. When a meteorite falls on their farm, it is only one of the things they must worry about. Ry is still struggling with emotional and psychological scars, and with a nearby prison break and the threat of his father returning, the family is in turmoil. Three childhood toys--Mr. Furrington, Jesus Christ, and Scowler--were a comfort to him when he escaped his death years ago, and they come back to help him in his new crisis. Ry has to decide what is real and what is imaginary, and how he can use his friends to his advantage. Several questions are raised about the Burke family: Why is this happening to them? Can they stick together and survive the father who terrorized their lives? Is Ry more like his father than he realized? Young Adult fiction is rarely as frightening and thought-provoking as this novel. The violence and gore may be too extreme for readers under sixteen, but older teens who are lovers of horror will be drawn in immediately. The audiobook version is highly recommended. Kirby Heyborne, the audiobook narrator, does a fantastic job of portraying all the voices and even the sound effects, like Scowler's throaty, scratchy growls and Marvin's incessant, repetitive humming. Try a sample excerpt from Audible. Listen during the day to prevent nightmares.

Partner Titles:

Book cover from
Walter Dean Myers

Myers, W.D. (1999). Monster. New York, NY: Harper Collins.

**2000 Coretta Scott King Award Author Honor

**2000 Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature

**1999 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Excellence in Children's Literature--Honor

Steve is on trial as an accomplice to murder, but he's not quite sure whether or not he is guilty. He's writing the script of his experience behind bars as he contemplates who he is. He has been called a monster, but is he? This is a great partner to Scowler because it questions what monsters are and both Steve and Ry must use their minds to protect themselves.

Book cover from
Barry Lyga

Lyga, B. (2012). I hunt killers. New York, NY: Little Brown and Company.

**2012 Bram Stoker Award Nominee for Superior Acheivement in a Young Adult Novel

**2012 Cybil Award from Children and Young Adult Bloggers

For those who like Scowler as a horror story, this book is a great companion that looks at the connection between father and son in a similar way. Like Ry in Scowler, Jasper "Jazz" Dent worries that he could become like his father. Jazz's father is a serial killer, and Jazz wants to prove to others that he is different, but he isn't so sure.

Book cover from
Bloomsbury Publishing

Harrold, A.F. & Gravett, E. (Illus.). (2014). The Imaginary. New York, NY: Bloomsbury.

**2015 Kirkus Prize Nominee

This middle grade novel makes a great partner to Scowler because it centers on an imaginary friend. Rudger is Amanda's imaginary friend, but when she may not need him anymore, he is alone and struggling to survive. Do Ry’s toys, which become imaginary friends for him, depend on him to exist as Rudger does on Amanda? What do they do to remain relevant?

Book cover from
Matt de la Pena

De la Pena, M. (2013). The Living. New York, NY: Random House.

**2014 Pura Belpre Award Nominee for Narrative

Like Scowler, this novel centers around the theme of survival. The protagonist of The Living and Ry each feel responsible for taking care of their mother and sister.  However, their situations are very different. Shy must survive an earthquake and tsunamis while at sea, where his new job on a cruise ship has gone horribly wrong. He must learn, like Ry, if he can do what it takes to survive a horrible situation. 

Book cover from
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Pfeffer, S.B. 2006. Life as we knew it. Orlando, FL: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 

**2007 YALSA Best Books for Young Adults

**2006 Booklist Editor's Choice: Books for Youth

A meteor hits the moon and Miranda and her family struggle to survive and to make sense of the new world. Ry's family also deals with the after-effects of a meteor, and must work together to overcome their situations. 

Teaching Ideas:

Love and relationships: Ask students to journal about the relationships in their lives, making lists of the types of relationships and writing about how they interact with the people who are most important to them. Give plenty of time for brainstorming and writing, and prompt them with ideas of family members, friends, romantic relationships, and self. Create some Padlet boards for students to answer key questions anonymously, such as “What is love?” “How do you show that you care about others?” “How do you communicate with those you love?” When everyone has had a chance to share thoughts on the Padlet boards, discuss the answers together, and how they are similar and different. What could the class members teach the Burke family about love?

Family Life 10.2 The student will describe his or her own attitudes concerning expectations of self and interpersonal relationships (VDOE, 2014, p. 36).

Letter of Advice: Students should choose one of the family members--Ry, Sarah, or Jo Beth--and think about all the difficult situations that character endures throughout the course of the book. After brainstorming about events in the book, students can write a letter giving the character advice about what to do and how to cope.

Family Life 12.9 The student will analyze stress and crisis situations which affect family life (VDOE, 2014, p. 43).

Character Archetypes: As students read, they should keep a character chart with descriptions of their characters and evidence from the story. This could be done as a group using a collaboration site like Mindmeister. When they have finished reading, they should categorize all of the characters using traditional character archetypes. They can present their designations (with textual evidence) using a presentation tool that others can navigate independently, like Haiku Deck or Emaze. Post their presentations to the library website for everyone to enjoy.

English 11.4 The student will read, comprehend, and analyze relationships among American literature, history, and culture. c) Discuss American literature as it reflects traditional and contemporary themes, motifs, universal characters, and genres (VDOE, 2010a, p. 2).

Meteorites: Sarah is fascinated with space, but when a meteorite falls on their farm, it changes everything. Physics students can research meteorites and use what they have learned about calculating gravitation and planetary motion to calculate meteorite impact. Use Purdue University's Impact Earth! website to check calculations.

PH.5 The student will investigate and understand the interrelationships among mass, distance, force, and time through mathematical and experimental processes (VDOE, 2010b, p. 7).

Farming Economics: The Burke family farm is failing, and Ry, Jo Beth, and Sarah plan to sell and leave before Marvin returns to terrorize his family. Economics students can use the information from the novel (the 400-acre farm and taking into account the livestock and crops) to explain what the farm could do to improve. 

EPF.1 The student will demonstrate knowledge of basic economic concepts and structures by a) describing how consumers, businesses, and government decision makers face scarcity of resources and must make trade-offs and incur opportunity costs (VDOE, 2009, p. 1).

References:

Collins, G., Melosh, H.J., & Marcus, R. (2015). Impact Earth! Purdue University. Retrieved from https://www.purdue.edu/impactearth/

Emaze. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.emaze.com/ 

Haiku Deck. (2015). Retrieved from https://www.haikudeck.com/ 

Meister Labs. (2015). Mindmeister. Retrieved from https://www.mindmeister.com/ 

Padlet. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://padlet.com/ 

Virginia Department of Education. (2009). Economics and personal finance standards of learning. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/economics_personal_finance/economics_personal_finance_sol.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2010a). Grade eleven. English standards of learning for Virginia public schools. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/english/2010/stds_english11.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2010b). Physics. Science standards of learning for Virginia public schools. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/science/2010/courses/stds_physics.pdf

Virginia Department of Education. (2014). Family life education. Retrieved from http://www.doe.virginia.gov/testing/sol/standards_docs/family_life/familylife_guidelines_standards.pdf


Further Explorations:

NASA’s Solar System Exploration pages are full of photos and amazing information. This link goes to the overview about meteors and meteorites, but click on the other tabs to find out more. Sarah is fascinated by space, and the meteorite is an important part of their story.

New York Prison Escape: NBC has compiled their articles and videos about the recent (summer 2015) escapees from a New York state prison. Marvin escaped after an occurrence that caused the prison wall to explode, but what is it really like when prisoners escape? Follow the story of this real-life escape and search.

National Domestic Violence Hotline: This website for victims of abuse has a 24-hour hotline and online chat option. It also includes information about what is considered abuse and what victims should do. 

Q&A about Child Physical Abuse: An interview between the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and Dr. David Kolko, an expert in psychology, psychiatry, and pediatrics. They discuss the effects of physical abuse on children. Ry not only witnessed the domestic violence against his mother, but was almost killed by his father, which landed his father in prison.

The Farm Crisis: This video clip is a preview of a longer documentary about the farm crisis in the 1980s. In Scowler, the Burke family is facing hard times not only because of their lack of knowledge, but because farming in America was suffering as a whole. 

The “Occupational Outlook Handbook” from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics gives an overview of jobs and industries in our country. This page lists some of the things farmers must do to maintain their businesses. When Marvin is sentenced to prison, his family must go on running the farm in his absence. 

The Twilight Zone is an iconic, creepy show that always has some sort of twist at the end. In Scowler, Ry imagines his childhood toys have their own personalities and roles in his life, and they become more real to him when he is older and his father returns. In this episode, “The Dummy,” the main character is a ventriloquist who imagines that his dummy is real and has ulterior motives of his own. Analyzing how the dummy and Scowler are alike makes for a frightening comparison.

References:

Iowa public television. (2013, June 24). The farm crisis (extended preview) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOAXvg0AvkM

Meteors and meteorites. (n.d.). Solar system exploration. National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Retrieved from http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/profile.cfm?Object=Meteors

National domestic violence hotline. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.thehotline.org/

New York prison escape. (2015). NBC news. Retrieved from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/new-york-prison-escape

Questions and answers about child physical abuse. (n.d.). National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Retrieved from http://nctsn.org/sites/default/files/assets/pdfs/qa_kolko_final.pdf

Serling, R. (Writer), Polk, L. (Writer), & Biberman, A. (Director). (1962). The dummy [Television series episode]. In Houghton, B. (Producer), The Twilight Zone. Culver City, CA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios.

What farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers do. (n.d.). Occupational outlook handbook. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/farmers-ranchers-and-other-agricultural-managers.htm#tab-2