Thoughtful Pete, touch Pauly, and twins Eric and Nicole, strange Raymond: As kids they were tight; now they've grown up--and apart. They agree to get together one last time, but past hurts and personal histories soon surface, and the party's over. The group splinters off into the night. Days later, a girl goes missing. Who is the prime suspect in her disappearance? It's one of the old gang. Pete doesn't know what to believe. Could one of his childhood friends be a cold-blooded killer?

Darren Shan is just an ordinary schoolboy who loves to ride bikes and hang out with his three best friends. Then one day Darren and his friends stumble across an invitation to visit Cirque de Freak, a strange and mysterious freak show. The boys can only buy two tickets, so they draw straws to see who will go. Almost if by destiny, Darren wins one of the tickets, and what follows is his horrifying descent into the dark and bloody vampire world.

Read these three parts of a story. Which part supports the theme "True friends are more valuable than money"?

The difference between theme and topic is....

What is theme?

Once a cat was in a hurry. It ran out into the middle of the street without looking. She narrowly missed being hit by a car.

Best theme for this story is...

Which is the richest theme for The Incredibles?

Which of the following is a NOT a theme?

Directions: Determine what the theme is for each story and explain your answer. Remember, a theme is a lesson or message in the story

Barry liked playing board games, but he hated losing. He hated losing so much that he would do whatever it took to win, even bending or breaking the rules. He'd steal money from the bank and hide it under the couch cushions. He'd skip spaces while he was moving around the board. He'd shortchange others money that they were owed and argue with them about it. Barry's techniques were effective. He did win most of the games that he played, but the people whom he played with were his friends and family, and it didn't take too long until they caught on to Barry's tricks. They tried to tell Barry to stop cheating. They said that the game wasn't any fun when he cheated, but he didn't listen. He continued with his treacherous style of gameplay, until nobody would play with him anymore. Barry may have won a lot of games, but at what cost?

What is the theme of the story?

It was Sean's first day at a new high school. Most of the students had been nice to him, until he got into gym class. The coach had assigned two captains, Mike and Malik, and they were picking teams from the boys in Sean's class. As Mike and Malik made their picks, it became pretty clear to Sean who was popular and who was not. Since Sean was short for his age, Mike and Malik just assumed that Sean could not play basketball. As Mike and Malik's choices dwindled, Sean still remained amongst an ever-slimming pool of struggling athletes. Now there were only two students left: Sean and another kid who seemed nice but was reading a book. Mike and Malik joked about who was going to get stuck with whom, and then Mike made his last pick. It was not Sean. Sean sighed and reluctantly joined Malik's team. As soon as the game began, Mike became aware of the error that he had made. Sean quickly stole the ball from him and ran it back for a layup. "The new kid got lucky," Mike remarked, but it soon became clear that Sean had more going for him than luck. What Sean lacked in height, he made up for in speed, and he continued to dominate the action on the court for the remainder of the game. With Sean's blazing speed and crazy crossovers, Malik's team devastated Mike's, and that was the only time that Sean would be last pick at that high school.

What is the theme of this story?

Blaine opened up the present and began pouting. He screamed in a high-pitched voice, "This is Captain Thunder! I wanted Captain Lightning!" His mother looked at him with dismay and handed him another present, which he greedily opened. "Why did you get me a red hat? You know I like blue more," Blaine whined as he threw the hat across the room. His mother straightened her expression and squinted at him. Earlier she had hoped to take some pictures of this moment, but by now she had put away her camera. She sighed and handed him one more present in hopes that this year wouldn't be a total bust. Blaine huffed and opened it. "A Game Box 4000… wow. Where's the Game Box 5000 that I asked for?" His mother could bear his ingratitude no longer. The next time that Blaine returned from his father's house, he was shocked to find that all of these toys and gifts, along with many other of his things, had been generously donated to needy children.

What is the Theme of this Story?

Jimmy and Eric were huddled by the tire swing. "Why did Scott have to take the kickball? He knows we play kickball at recess." Jimmy whined. "Maybe we could just do something else." Eric suggested. "No, I'm going to get back our kickball," countered Jimmy. Scott was bouncing the kickball against the wall by himself when Jimmy approached him. "Give us back our kickball, Scott!" Jimmy shouted. Scott looked up and down at Jimmy and then continued bouncing the ball against the wall. Jimmy ran up to Scott and tried to snatch the ball as it passed from the wall back to Scott, but he was too slow. He missed and fell onto the gravel and cried out, "Ow! See what you did, Scott!" By now Eric had joined the other two boys and he made a suggestion: "Hey, Scott, maybe we could all play together." Scott looked at him skeptically, but Eric's warm expression convinced him of his sincerity. "Ok," Scott muttered as he helped Jimmy back to his feet and asked, "What do you want to play?" The boys agreed on kickball and used the remaining recess time to play. Jimmy and Eric agreed that it was a lot more fun to play with three people and Scott became a regular addition to their recess activities.

What is the Theme of this short story?

Genevieve was obsessed with details. She felt that everything that she submitted to her teacher had to be perfect. For the final project in reading class, students were given one week to use their art skills to bring a scene from a novel to life. Genevieve decided that she would build a shoebox diorama. She spent the first two nights creating an intricately detailed scene far superior to anything that her classmates would produce, but she ended up throwing it away because she didn't like how tape was visible at the bottom of the diorama. The next two nights she worked on a similar diorama, but this time she used glue. Again, Genevieve produced a beautiful product, but she was troubled by how the glue looked when it dried, so she discarded her work again. Over the weekend and into the next week, Genevieve recreated the project a third time. This time she used a special adhesive putty to construct the diorama and was completely satisfied with the appearance. Unfortunately, her project was now several days late and her grade on the assignment was lowered to a C.