I Am David By Anne Holm and translated from Danish by L. W. Kingsland Originally published in 1965. These sheets will help you plan your reading schedule and give you questions to think about and answer. The page numbers for the questions are a guide; you might have to read one page back or ahead. You may hand write your answers in cursive on a separate sheet of college ruled paper or you may type. If you hand write, please write neatly and single space your answers. If you type, please use Times New Roman font (or any font that looks like the font used for this reading guide). Please do not use a font that looks similar to the font for this sentence. Anything typed is always double spaced, which means one blank line between lines. Please don't write in the books. These belong to a classroom set. If you'd like to make notes while you read, please use post it notes. Also remember that you are encouraged to go back to the page numbers and re-read sections to help you answer the questions. Assignment 1: Chapter 1 Due: Wednesday, September 10 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Where does the man tell David he needs to go? On page 6, why does David think the guards would feel cheated if he didn’t run when they shot him? On page 12, how does David get food? On page 19, how does the man say Johannes died? How do you think he really died? On page 20, David had worried about how he was going to get out of the truck. How did he get out? Why do you think the Italian didn’t turn David in? How does David make it to land if he can’t swim? At the end of the chapter, David decides he doesn’t want to die. Why does he want to live?

Assignment 2: Chapter 2 Due: Friday, September 12 1. Why does David work so hard to scrub himself clean? What do you think the author intended this to symbolize? 2. Again, on the symbolic level: On page 35, David says his feet and hands will be his servants, not the other way around. What does he mean? What does this decision symbolize for David? 3. On page 38, what is the mystery object David is eating? 4. What languages does David speak? How do you think he learned them? 5. Page 41: What kinds of things does David not know about because he grew up in the labor camp? 6. Page 43: What does David mean by a “story,” and why does he need one? 7. Page 44: David keeps referring to “them” and “they.” Who are they? 8. Page 52: Why do you think David so insistently tells the mother to watch out for her baby? 9. Page 53: “David knew that he could feel fear for others.” Why couldn’t he before? 10. Page 53: “It was David’s first encounter with his conscience. What was the right thing to do?” Why in the concentration camp had he never had to ask himself the right thing to do? 11. At the end of the chapter, David wonders what the townspeople think is so strange about his eyes? How do you think they look…and why?

Assignment 3: Chapter 3 Due: Monday, September 15 1. On page 65, you find out what “the man” did at the camp. What was he? 2. What happened to David’s compass? 3. Page 76: Why does David have to learn how to smile? Why do you think the townspeople look “put out” (insulted) when they smiled at him? 4. Page 77: What explanation does David give for not taking the Englishman’s money? 5. Page 83: “Johannes said that when you very much want something you haven’t got, you no longer care for what you have got.” What does this mean, and what does David want? 6. Page 86: Why did David want the couple to be ashamed of themselves? 7. Page 87: David wants to earn money, not be given money. Why? Why does he only want to earn money from people he likes? 8. Page 87: Why does David like the feeling of thinking, “I am David and I make my own decisions, and no one has any right to tell me what to do?” 9. Page 89: What was in David’s bundle, and how did it get there? Assignment 4: Chapter 4 Due: Wednesday, September 17 1. What does David like and dislike about forests? 2. Why does David think children are more dangerous to him than grown-ups? 3. David doesn’t know what “playing” means. He gave up trying to figure it out. Explain to David what it means and how you do it. 4. Page 112: What does David do for the first time? Why? 5. Whom do we find out the boy who beat up David is? 6. Page 113: Johannes explains the difference between joy and happiness is that joy passes but happiness never completely disappears. Explain what this means. 7. Page 122: Why does David thank his god? 8. Page 128: On what condition does David say he’ll stay? Why is this important to him? Assignment 5: Chapter 5 Due: Friday, September 19 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Why does David want a book only if it’s published before 1917? Page 134: What does David like to do that the boys don’t? Page 136: Why do you think David doesn’t like to play pretend with the boys? Page 147: What does David wonder about the man? Explain what the children’s mother (Elsa) doesn’t like about David. (Explain all the things she lists.) Page 161: What is David’s reason for explaining to Maria that wickedness exists? Do you agree or disagree with David, and why? 7. Maria asks David who is going to explain everything to her. What is David’s answer? Explain what he says.

Assignment 6: Chapters 6 Due: Monday, September 22 1. Page 167: David loves beauty, and yet he doesn’t feel like appreciating it. He feels depressed. Why? 2. Page 173: Explain what this means: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” 3. Page 179: “Suddenly David knew why nothing had seemed quite right since he had left the house.” Explain what he feels here in your own words. 4. On page 180, read the last paragraph. Explain what is going on here. 5. Page 182: This isn’t to answer, it’s just info: A “frontier” is a border between two countries. 6. Page 183: What is David’s method for crossing into another country? 7. Page 185: What does David think the woman means when she says she wants to paint him? 8. Page 186: David says you can tell from people’s faces whether they were intelligent or not. How do you think you can tell? 9. Page 192: What does the woman mean when she says someone has broken David’s spirit? 10. Explain the sad story the woman tells David. Assignment 7: Chapter 7 Due: Wednesday, September 24 1. 2. 3. 4.

By page 196, you should know who David realizes he is. Explain. Page 197: What is the evil reason David thinks he wasn’t allowed out of the work camp? Page 198: Top of the page: What is the conflict the man had inside himself about David? Page 203: David is kidnapped by the farmer. The text reads: “He knew now that he could never have lasted through the winter tramping the roads…He would have died of hunger and cold. At least he had shelter where he was, and food every day.” What does this tell you about David’s character? 5. On page 207, what is it that David wants? 6. Read the last paragraph on page 211 (and continue the paragraph to the next page). What does David realize here? 7. Page 217: What was the barred door, and what was the meaning of it? (He explains it at the end of the paragraph discussing the barred door.) Assignment 8: Chapter 8 Due: Friday, September 26 1. Why does David write the letter to Carlo? 2. Page 233: “Then David suddenly realized he was wrong. It was not because it had followed him that the dog was dead.” What does David realize about this? 3. The author, when asked about why she wrote the book, said, “I wrote David because it seemed to me that children, who can love a book more passionately than any grown person, got such a lot of harmless entertainment and not nearly enough real, valuable literature.” Write about half a page or more and explain if you think this book is real, valuable literature and why you think so.