Every classroom is different, but Frankie's vivid preadolescent intensity and needs may appeal to many students. These lessons and activities provide many different approaches to the text; select those that best suit the strengths and interests of your own class.
Remind students before they read that some of the vocabulary, and especially the dialogue, is regional, with a great deal of idiomatic dialect and regionally derived words. Most of these are either explained in the text or can be figured out from the context. Others may need more explanation.
Note that in one section of the book, and angry Frankie uses the "n-word." It is certainly a word that she's heard others use in her...
