The Red Pencil

Two key aspects of The Red Pencil are it being written in verse and in the voice of a 12-year-old girl. Do you think the story would have felt different had it been written in clear-cut prose? How and why? Which plot points would have read different had the protagonist been a boy instead?

Teaching Suggestion: In the Author’s Note, Andrea Davis Pinkney mentions that she chose to write the novel in verse in order to make the concepts of war and genocide comprehensible for young readers, while keeping them insulated from their horror. By discussing this aspect of the novel, it may be possible to draw students’ attention to verse as a form and its effects. When examining which parts of the novel would have been different had the narrator been a boy, it may help to guide students toward specific ideas or incidents. Some examples could include: What would the protagonist’s education have looked like? Would there have been a difference in the expression of the protagonist’s grief? Would the protagonist have chosen to leave Kalma at all?