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John Millen

Hobnail boots
Hobnail by Crystal Arbogast is a short story about a very simple event. A mother and her daughter have been visiting relatives. They live deep in the North American countryside and the time is probably the 1950s. 
After saying good night to their relatives, the mother and daughter walk home to their own farm along a road that they have walked many times. It is  isolated and dark, but the mother knows the road very well. The mood at the start of the story is peaceful and calm. What could possibly happen on a journey home that two people have taken many times? Hobnail does just what a short story should do. It does not waste any words or events.  It builds up the reader's interest quickly and surely and then ends with a big surprise.
The way home
Hobnail is divided into four  sections. Read through each section and answer these questions.
Section 1
1 The start of the story focuses on what sort of character?
 2 What is the mood of the opening paragraph?
 a. spooky
 b. safe and comfortable
 c. sad
 3 What effect does giving the characters names have on the reader?
 4 What happens at the end of the first section of the story?
Section 2
 5 Pick out the words and phrases at the start of the second section that create the story's change of mood. 
6 There is more description in this second section. Pick out some phrases that describe the new setting and different atmosphere.
7 What strange sounds do the mother and daughter hear in this section?
Section 3
8 How do their religious beliefs help the two characters at the beginning of this section?
9 What is the main sound in this section?
10 What does the mother do to take her daughter's thoughts away from this sound? 
Section 4
11 What comforts the mother and daughter as soon as they reach home?
12 What is the mood of the story now? Pick out some phrases or ideas that create this mood.
13 How is this mood broken at the end of the story?
Style and suspense
1 Can you think of any other spooky story or film  that has a child as a central character? Why would a writer or film director choose a child to be the main character of a horror story?
 2 Read though the story a few times and then write out a plan of how the writer has built up suspense? Is the vocabulary of the story quite simple or complicated? What does the writer do to the reader in the final words of the story?
 3 Look at the last three sentences of the story. Why are they short  sentences? 
 Why does the writer not continue the dialogue between the man and the woman at the end?  
Those boots were made for walking
 Hobnail boots are heavy duty boots that have nails hammered into the leather soles to give better grip. They make a loud noise when used  over a solid surface. The sound of the  boots is a very important feature of Hobnail. 
Can a sound be as frightening as something we see? Write a short horror or ghost story where a 'sound' does the scaring.
Answers:
June 1
You and Jedward: 1. b, 2. a, 3. b, 4. a, 5. a 
Key words: 1. a, 2. a, 3. a, 4. b, 5. b, 6. b



Hobnail