SuitabookThe best of enemies
Nancy Bond
- Reading
- Pause around the Patriots’ Day celebration to discuss why communities commemorate the past, then revisit the confrontation afterwards.
- Themes
- Belonging and family attention: Charlotte is the youngest child and feels displaced as her family concentrates on activities that do not include her. The situation clearly foregrounds Charlotte’s need for attention, but it is not clear whether the story ultimately validates, challenges or transforms that need.
- History, celebration and conflict: A Patriots’ Day celebration commemorating the start of the Revolutionary War becomes the setting for a twentieth-century confrontation between British visitors and Americans. The book?s stance on this remains unclear.
- Worth knowing
- Notice how Charlotte’s wish for attention develops once events become more serious. It may be useful to distinguish her personal disappointment from the wider conflict, and to ask whose perspective the confrontation privileges.