Kill Me Softly

Kill Me Softly

Bibliographic Information

      Cross, Sarah. Kill Me Softly. New York : Egmont USA, 2012. eBook.

Plot Description

Mira is going to turn sixteen in just a few days. Her godmothers want to make her birthday a big celebration.  What they don’t know is that Mira won’t be there for her birthday. Mira is going to Beau Rivage, the city where she’d been born, the city where they’d buried her parents. The one place her godmothers had forbidden.

Once in Beau Rivage, Mira becomes friends with some of the locals. Although she was never a fan of fairy tales, she can’t help but notice some of the similarities like Viv who is pale white, has red lips and a jealous stepmother and Freddie who is charming and waiting to help a damsel in distress. In Beau Rivage fairy tales and curses are real. Is this why she has been forbidden to go to Beau Rivage? As Mira’s sixteenth birthday quickly approaches she learns that not all fairy tales have a happy ending.    

Quantitative Reading Level

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 7.1

Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease: 75.1

ATOS Level: 7.9

Qualitative Reading Level

Meaning: Middle High. Text contains multiple layers of meaning.

Structure: Middle High/Low. The narrative structure contains some complexities, more implicit than explicit and some unconventionality. Narration does not shift in point of view. The order of events has occasional use of flashbacks and no major shifts in time.    

Language: Middle Low: Text contains subtle use of figurative language or irony. The language is largely contemporary, familiar, conversational language that is explicit. The text is rarely unfamiliar, archaic, domain-specific or overly academic.

Knowledge Demands: Middle Low. Text explores a single complex theme, experiences portrayed are fantasy and but can be easily understood by the common reader. The use of intertexuality and allusions to cultural elements requires some level of cultural and literacy knowledge. Even though Kill Me Softly requires knowledge of Grimm’s fairy tales (not the Disney versions), I would still classify this as Middle Low because the author includes explanations of some of the key fairy tale elements.

Content Area

English

Subject Area Tag

English, Reading for Pleasure: Chapter Books, Middle School or High School

Content Area Standard

1. Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.

2. Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.

3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.

4. Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical,  connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyze how specific word choices shape meaning or tone.

5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.

6. Assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.

9. Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.

10. Read and comprehend complex literary and informational texts independently and proficiently.

11. Respond to literature by employing knowledge of literary language, textual features, and forms to read and comprehend, reflect upon, and interpret literary texts from a variety of genres and a wide spectrum of American and world cultures.

Curriculum Suggestions

• Pair with Grimm’s Fairy Tales
• Discuss the Disneyization of Grimm’s Fairy tales

Links to Supporting Digital Content

Grimm’s Fairy Tales:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2591/2591-h/2591-h.htm

Author website:

http://www.sarahcross.com/

Optional

I chose this book because it was a YALSA 2013 Teens’ Top Ten Book. 

*photo obtained from Goodreads