The Girl Who Owned A City

By O.T. Nelson
Nelson, O. T. The girl who owned a city. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing, 1975.



Summary

A virus that only affected people above the age 12 wipes out all the adults in the world. Lisa and her younger brother struggle to stay alive by scavenging for food among forgotten and abandoned houses and businesses. At night, Lisa and her brother barricade themselves inside their house in order to protect themselves from gangs of children. Lisa realizes to stay safe, she must team up with the other children on her street to protect themselves against a roaming gang that has been terrorizing them. Lisa becomes the leader of the group and devises a way to keep them safe. She comes up with the idea of creating a fortress. She and the children move to a local high school and turn it into a fortress. Many children join her and their fortress becomes a city. Her leadership is challenged by a gang of children and she must fight for her city.

Lexile Level: 660L

Grades: 4-6

Domains: Affective


Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.3

Explain the relationships or interactions between two or more individuals, events, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text based on specific information in the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.5.8

Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s).

Goal

Students will understand the evolution of characters in a novel.

Objectives

Students will understand the characteristics that two characters display at the beginning and end of a novel.

Outcome

Students will complete a character map for two characters. The character map includes personality traits, how the character interacts with other characters in the novel, how the character influences the storyline, and changes that occur to the characters by the end of the novel. They must include evidence from the book to support their answers.


Selling Tool:

Even though I did not make this book trailer, I thought it was an excellent way to promote the book to students.


https://youtu.be/jYsglEBcIWk


Rebecca Foody. "The Girl Who Owned a City by O. T. Nelson book trailer" Online video clip. YouTube, 1 Apr. 2015, 9 Dec. 2017.