Teachers’ Guide Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin Introduction sit each day at the Observation Deck and watch her family and friends back on Earth through the Liz awakens in an unfamiliar bed in an unfamiliar binoculars. Eventually, bored with doing nothing room. Why is she on a ship in the middle of the but viewing the events on Earth, Liz begins to ocean? Where is the ship heading? And who is accept her new life. She elects to help domestic this other girl named Thandi who is sharing her pets become acclimated to life in Elsewhere and room? Liz finally comes to understand that she ends up adopting a dog named Sadie on the first has been killed by a hit-and-run driver and is day of her job. Later, Liz meets Owen Wells and bound for a place called Elsewhere. falls in love. Liz arrives in Elsewhere and is greeted by her Life, though, is no easier in Elsewhere than it grandmother Betty, a woman who died even was on Earth, and Liz has to learn how to deal before Liz was born. On the drive to her home, with loss and change. In Owen’s previous life on Betty explains how Elsewhere operates. Liz will Earth, he was married. When his wife arrives in live in Elsewhere and age in reverse. She is Elsewhere, Liz is displaced. She decides to take expected to decide on some sort of avocation advantage of a special clause, known as the (a job she loves) and to go on with her life until Sneaker Clause, and return to Earth now rather she becomes a baby. At that point, Liz will be than wait for her inevitable infancy. At the last “released” to return to Earth and given an minute, Liz changes her mind. Owen rescues Liz entirely new life. from the water so she can return to life on Elsewhere. Liz continues to grow younger until, Liz resists the customs of Elsewhere. She is as the novel ends, she is released into the River to angered that instead of growing older and be born anew on Earth. Elsewhere explores how obtaining her driver’s license and falling in love, we all must cope with life and whatever is to she will get younger. She refuses to do more than come after our lives end. ELSEWHERE Classroom Connections • Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, Reading and English Language Arts classes vocabulary) to communicate effectively with a address skills that often overlap. Therefore, a variety of audiences and for different purposes. critical reading of this novel can be used in any • Students employ a wide range of strategies as classroom setting that focuses on the reading, they write and use different writing process comprehension, and discussion of text. Since elements appropriately to communicate with this novel relies on powerful imagery, subtle different audiences for a variety of purposes. symbolism, and other advanced components of • Students apply knowledge of language structure, literature, a study of this story can extend language conventions (e.g., spelling and beyond basic skills in reading to include more punctuation), media techniques, figurative sophisticated skills such as identifying symbolism language, and genre to create, critique, and and understanding figurative language. discuss print and non-print texts. • Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, Moreover, since reading and writing are skills creative, and critical members of a variety of that share many of the same characteristics, literacy communities. students can be encouraged to write in response Students use spoken, written, and visual language to their reading. This novel can also be tied to • to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for other topics such as careers, grief and loss, and learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the relationships. School counselors can be involved exchange of information). in the planning and delivery of instruction about this novel. Pre-reading Activity Language Arts /English /Reading Standards: Much of Liz’s initial anger at finding herself (www.ncte.org/about/over/standards/110846.htm) in Elsewhere is that her future plans are all canceled. Since everyone in Elsewhere ages in These standards, set by the International Reading reverse, Liz will never have the chance to get her Association (IRA) and the National Council of driver’s license, go to the prom, or graduate from Teachers of English (NCTE), can be developed high school. Compile a list of three goals you through a study of this novel: hope to accomplish in the next year. Why is each • Students read a wide range of print and non-print goal important? How must you go about texts to build an understanding of texts, of accomplishing these goals? themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society Discussion Questions and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, I Water is a powerful image and symbol that classic and contemporary works. runs throughout the book. Liz’s story opens on the ocean; the Well is in the water; the • Students read a wide range of literature from Observation Decks face the water; Liz can many periods in many genres to build an communicate through a water source with her understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human brother, Alvy. What other aspects of the experience. importance of water are evident in the novel? Why does the author elect to use water as such • Students apply a wide range of strategies to an essential symbol? Comment on some of the comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate other symbols, such as Liz’s stitches, the watch texts. They draw on their prior experience, their her father gave her, and the snow globe. interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, I their word identification strategies, and their This novel is divided into three separate parts understanding of textual features (e.g., sound- and also employs a prologue and an epilogue. letter correspondence, sentence structure, Understanding the structure of the novel is context, graphics). important to understanding the story itself. Why 2 FARRAR STRAUS GIROUX ELSEWHERE is the scene with Liz’s dog, Lucy, the first glimpse does the structure of the site reflect the structure the author provides of the story? How does this and content of the novel? scene foreshadow what will come later in the novel? How does the epilogue bring the novel not I Liz and all the other arrivals in Elsewhere are to a close but to a resolution? What purpose do encouraged to find an avocation to pursue during the three parts serve? What important events their time there. Ghent explains to Liz that an occur in each of the three parts? avocation is something that makes one’s soul complete (page 74). Some of the residents of I There are many characters who are part of the Elsewhere work in avocations similar to the jobs story of Elsewhere, all of them critical to it. The they did on Earth; others have new ones. Marilyn author, Gabrielle Zevin, introduces the characters Monroe becomes a psychiatrist. Curtis Jest early in the story. Liz meets Thandi and Curtis on decides to be a fisherman and comments that the ship, Grandma Betty upon her arrival, Aldous John Lennon is a gardener. How do the Ghent at the acclimation session, and Owen at avocations of Monroe, Lennon, Owen, Betty, the Well. No characters, not even the canine ones, Curtis, and other characters reflect what they are minor to the story. Explore how the really want out of their new lives? characters move the novel forward. For instance, what important role does Esther, the supervisor at the Observation Deck, play? Why is Thandi About the Author critical to the story? Could the novel be complete without Sadie or Lucy or Alvy? How does each of Elsewhere is the first young- them help Liz adjust to life on Elsewhere and adult novel by author come to understand that life on Elsewhere is Gabrielle Zevin, but it is not something to be cherished? her first piece of writing. Gabrielle is the author of I Notice the allusions made to classic and one book for adults, contemporary literature throughout the novel. Liz Margarettown, and several recalls a line about antique lands. Aldous Ghent screenplays, including prompts Liz to read Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Conversations with Other Night’s Dream. Liz reads E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Women, which was made Web as she grows younger. Finally, Owen reads into a film starring Helena Bonham Carter and Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting to Liz when Aaron Eckhart. She is a graduate of Harvard she is no longer able to read on her own. Every University with a degree in English and American one of these titles deals with some aspect of life Literature and lives in New York City with her as it relates to Elsewhere as well as Earth. How pug dog, Mrs. DeWinter, and her partner of ten does each address some facet of Liz’s life and years, director Hans Canosa. experiences? Gabrielle says, “When I was around eight, I I How does the author use humor in the novel? learned how to touch-type at school, and I What examples of wordplay are evident? For received a computer as a present. I started instance, Liz is aboard a ship called the Nile and writing plays, and for many years I thought I Thandi tells her she is in denial (de-nile).