Dear nobody door Berlie Doherty

Before you start reading:

Look at the cover-design. Describe it briefly.
There is a boys’ face and a girls’ face on the cover. They aren’t look really happy. It’s a bit a dark cover.

Do you like it? Why (not)?
I don’t like it very much because it’s a bit sad. But it’s not a very old-fashioned. At that side I do like it.

Does the cover make you think of something the story might be about? Try to formulate it.
Yes, I think it’s a story about a boy and a girl who are/were in love with each other. I also think there’s a problem between them because they look so sad and it’s a dark cover.

What is the title of this book?
The title is ‘Dear Nobody’.

Does the title reveal something of what the book might be about? What does it make you think of?
I think the boy and girl are writing, because you started a letter with ‘dear’. It can be that they are writing to an unknown-person, because the ‘nobody’.

Who is the writer?
The writer is Berlie Doherty.

Write down the most important things of the information about the writer that you find on the back cover or on one of the first pages of the book.
I could only find that she has written an other book called ‘Granny was a Buffer Girl’.

Now look in the book. How many pages has it got?
The book has got 200 pages.

How is the book built up? Chapters? Parts? How many? Only numbers or also titles?
The book is built up in months. Each chapter is a month, from January to November, without numbers.

can you tell why you have chosen this book?
When I stood in the library someone told me that this book was very good. So I read the back cover and l liked the texts on the back, because it’s a book about teenage pregnancy.

The beginning of the story:

Write down the very first sentence of the book.
Maybe we all want to burn off across the horizon, into space, perhaps, to take off into some unknown territory and meet ourselves out there.

What does the first page tell you about the setting?
That it takes place in Sheffield.

What characters do you meet on this page? Mention the name(s).
You meet the boy Chris.

Can you see who the narrator of this page is?
Yes, Chris is the narrator.

Say something about the style: simple words or difficult ones, short sentences or long ones?
There aren’t very much difficult words, and short sentences. Not very difficult to read.

Summarize the information of page in a few sentences.
Chris is writing a letter to someone. He is in his bedroom packing his rucksack to go to Newcastle the next day.

The Plot:

Chris and Helen are in love with each other. One day they make love. A few weeks later Helen has the suspicion that she’s pregnant. She buys a pregnancy test and it turns out to be positive. Later she buys another one and then it turns out to be negative. Helen is pregnant. She doesn’t want to keep the baby and her mother pushes her to go to an abortion clinic. But Helen goes out of the surgery room and goes home, because she’s afraid. She wants to keep the baby. When her mother hears it she is very angry and ignores Helen. Helens’ mother has forbidden to see Chris. Then Helen started writing letters to her ‘Nobody’.
There is a party in June and Helen and Chris go there. Helen breaks their relation because she want to take care of her child on her own. Chris felt very unhappy without Helen, because he’s still very in love with her. His friend Tom asked him to go on holiday with him to France, so he did. One day they met two girls, Menai and Bryn. Bryn is in love with Chris, and he likes her to, but he can’t forget Helen.
Chris’ mother has send a secret letter to Helen to tell her she wants to pay for bringing up the baby. A week later the baby comes. Helens asked her little brother Robbie to do something for her, to bring all the letters she wrote to her ‘Nobody’ to Chris, to let him know how she felt and the baby comes soon. When Chris read the letters, he went to the hospital. But the baby was already born. It was a girl and her name is Amy.

After reading the book:

What type of novel would you call this book?
I would call it a novel about two young people in love, and teenage pregnancy.

Is there an initial incident, an event that makes the story start?
Chris is packing his rucksack to go to Newcastle the next day. He is reading the letters of Helen to their unborn baby. This all brings him back to the time where it starts: January.

What is the climax of the story in your eyes? Why is that the climax?
I think when Helen decided to keep the baby. I think that’s a difficult decision to make, because she’s very young. She’s only 17 and is still on school. So in that condition it isn’t easy to bring up a child.

Have you been able to find out why the story has this title? Explain it.
The story has the title ‘Dear Nobody’. It’s because Helen writes letters to her unborn child, who she called Nobody. Every letter she start with ‘Dear Nobody’.

Mention the main character(s). How do you feel about him/her/them?
Helen: She is a 17-year old girl. She has got long, dark hair and a beautiful smile. She is in love with Chris. She is pregnant from Chris. I think she is a very strong and independence girl, because she makes very difficult decisions on her own.
Chris: He is a 18-year old boy. He has got short dark hair. He is very in love with Helen. He made Helen pregnant.

Give a complete picture of the setting: time, place, social background.
The story takes place in England, in Sheffield. When exactly isn’t told in the book. It’s only from January to November, but it doesn’t tell in witch year.

What is the theme of the story according to you?
I think the theme is Teenage pregnancy.

From whose point of view do we see and experience things?
From Chris. Sometimes from Helen in her letters.

How does the writes use time? (Chronologically? Flashbacks?)
He use the time chronologically. It’s a kind of diary, so it’s written chronologically from January till November.

Did you like the writer’s stile of writing? Why (not)?
Yes, I liked it because the sentences and the words weren’t to difficult. It was quite easy to read.

Was there an event or a passage in the book that particularly appealed to you? Describe it and say why it struck or moved you like that.
No, there wasn’t a passage in the book that appealed to me.

How did you like the book as a whole? Write something about the reasons why you liked or disliked the book. (5-10 lines)
I liked the book very much, because the subject interested me. It was very realistic written. I don’t know somebody in my area who has a baby at this young age, so the book gave me a good look on how it is to have a baby when your just 17. There are a lot of problems when you’re having a baby on that age. The stile of how the book was written was also nice, I liked it was written in a kind of dairy form. The letters from Helen were very personal to read. She gave me a look in here live. I also liked the book because I read it very easy. I hadn’t look up words very much.