Notes, Activities, and Misc. Ongoing My Perspectives Notes, Activities, and Misc. Ongoing

Mrs. Ross’s Summary of Non Fiction Narrative In “Red Roses,” the narrator Lila relates an experience from middle school that shows that she had matured in an important way. Lila prefers not to attract any attention, but her friends have targeted a boy named Derek who is clearly different from other kids. Lila doesn’t make fun of him, but her friends do. When Derek leaves her gifts, she gets teased by her friends, but doesn’t do anything. The final gift, a bouquet of red roses, comes to her in front of the entire cafeteria and makes her so mad, she snaps at Derek. When she sees he’s about to cry, she realizes that he’ll be a target for a long time if he does, so she takes the roses and carries them all day. Although they didn’t talk after that, she knew that taking a ‘hit’ to spare Derek’s feelings was something to be proud of.

Pearson’s Sample Summary of “Red Roses” In “Red Roses,” Lila shares an experience from when she was a middle school student. She remembers a boy named Derek who seemed different from other students. She explains that she initially ignored him, but he began to leave gifts for her each day. Her friends teased her, and so the gifts annoyed her. One day, Derek presented Lila with a dozen roses. She got angry with him and told him to leave her alone, but then she noticed that he looked like he was going to cry. To protect him, she took the flowers and carried them all day in school. They never spoke again, but she counts this as an important day in her life. It was a day she did something she didn’t want to do just to protect someone else.