Bandit's Moon is written by Sid Fleischman and illustrated by Jos A. Smith. It is set during the Gold Rush in California. The main character named Annyrose. She is living with O.O. Mary, a mean and greedy woman, who cuts off her hair and sells her clothes in exchange for a place to live. When Annyrose finally gets away to try and find her older brother, Lank, she runs into a gang of Mexican bandits led by Joaquin Murieta. She has no choice but to go with them. He protects her and she teaches him to read from an old cookbook because he wants to see what his "Wanted" posters say. She does not believe that Joaquin and his bandits are doing the right thing but she finds out that he is very nice and they form a great friendship. She sees how wrongly they were done by the Americans because they stole their land and gold. Annyrose ends up thinking that Joaquin killed her brother and turns him in to the local sheriff. This turns out not to be true because she later finds her brother is one of the members of the army trying to catch Joaquin. She begs him not to go after him because he has protected her and became her friend. Joaquin ends up escaping from the sheriff and Annyrose goes to start her new life with her brother.
I would have the children do a book talk with this book. After every chapter they read, they would get in small groups and discuss what they have read. They could discuss the characters, any questions they have, make predictions, as well as other things. They could then act out the chapter, have an interview with the main character, etc. Each group could present their information to the class so to re-insure that the whole class understands the book up to that point.
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