Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered

Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered

• Genre: Fiction; semi-autobiographical vignettes
• Originally Published: 1993
• Reading Level/Interest: Lexile 1060L; grades 6-8
• Structure/Length: 12 chapters; approx. 168 pages; approx. 3 hours, 45 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: The protagonist is an 11-year-old boy who spends the summer with relatives on their farm. There, he meets plain-spoken and lively cousin Harris, who pulls the protagonist into the details of farm life and a full slate of summer adventures.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Narration of young children playing with guns, looking at pornographic pictures, and engaging in risky behavior; profanity; alcoholism as a symptom of war-related PTSD

Gary Paulsen, Author

• Bio: 1939-2021; born in Minnesota; as a child, struggled in school but grew to love reading; on the path to become a successful writer, worked in hunting and trapping and took up dogsled racing; after serving in the US Army, became a corporate aerospace field engineer; became a writer of adult fiction, nonfiction, and plays, but most well-known for his young adult stories of survival, nature, and coming of age; awarded Newbery Medal Honor citations for Dogsong (1985), Hatchet (1986), and The Winter Room (1989)
• Other Works: Hatchet (1986); The River (1991); Winterdance (1994); Brian’s Winter (1996); The Transall Saga (1998); Woods Runner (2010)
• Awards: Booklist Books for Youth Top of List citation (1993); ALA Notable and Best Book (1993); South Carolina Young Adult Book Award (1997); Iowa Teen Award (1997)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Home, Family, and Acceptance
• The Importance of Friendship
• Growing Up

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of farm life and how it connects to themes of Home, Family, and Acceptance, The Importance of Friendship, and Growing Up through class discussions, personal prompts, and a poetry activity.
• Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to develop an understanding of the socio-historical context of the 1950s.
• Construct a visual timeline of the novel’s key events and how they impact the protagonist’s character arc and illuminate the novel’s themes.