by Audrey Couloumbis Published 2002

Created by Phil Bildner, author of "Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy"

1) Choose one of these events from Say Yes:

• A woman in upper Manhattan leaves home, abandoning her stepdaughter.
• An unknown girl robs Mrs. Clark's home.
• A gypsy tries to take over an apartment in upper Manhattan but is foiled by neighbors. A child is discovered to be living there alone.
• A foster parent in upper Manhattan is relieved of his responsibilities after beating a teenager in his care.

2) Write a newspaper article about this singular event.

A news article follows a specific structure. The first paragraph must tell WHO, WHAT, WHEN and WHERE. The second paragraph adds important details. The next paragraphs add details of lesser and lesser importance. Remember, a newspaper reporter is just supposed to report the facts, he or she is not supposed to take sides.

3) Write Casey's diary.

• To do this, you will have to determine what happened on each day of the week for two weeks. Your entries do not have to be any longer than three lines. You don't have to make up events, and sometimes you will find text in the book that is precisely what Casey would have put in her diary. You can use that. But also try to answer these questions:
• What discoveries does Casey make about the things that Sylvia worried about from day to day that Casey now worries about?
• How do Casey's perceptions of the lives being lived around her change over the time that Sylvia is gone?
• What do her entries tell you about her and about the other characters? What can you figure out about those characters from what she does not tell you?

4) Choose one character from Say Yes and write a character sketch. Before writing the sketch in paragraph form, answer these questions about the character:

• What adjectives can be (or were) used to describe the character's appearance?
• What adjectives will you use to describe the character's personality in your character sketch?
• What would others say about this character and/or how would others react to this character?
• How would this character like his or her life to be?
• What does (or would) this character think about or how would the character feel about everyday things like school, television, pizza, movies?