The Fault in Our Stars

John Green has written a number of successful books aimed at young adult readers. Have you read any of these? Tell your class about it.

The Fault in our Stars Paper Towns Looking for Alaska Turtles All the Way Down An Abundance of Katherines Will Grayson, Will Grayson Let it Snow John Green (1977–) is an American author and video blogger (vlogger).

Remember! You don’t have to understand all the words in a story to enjoy it.

cancer kreft portable bærbar elevator heis Last Days siste levedager Dixie cup pappbeger leanly muscular med lange, slanke muskler dwarfed her: fikk stolen til å se liten, dvergaktig ut molded plastic av formpresset plast elementary school barneskole mahogany mørk rødbrun tailbone halebenet posture holdning, stilling aggressively poor her: demonstrativt ynkelig conscious of oppmerksom på myriad utallige insufficiencies feil og mangler sagged hang slapt JOHN GREEN The Fault in Our Stars This is an extract from the novel The Fault in our Stars. Hazel is sixteen years old. She has been ill with cancer for about two years. A portable oxygen tank helps her breathe. Her mother is worried because she spends most of her time alone and depressed. Today, her mother makes her to go to a support group for teenagers with cancer where she meets a new boy, Augustus. I didn’t want to take the elevator because taking the elevator is a Last Days kind of activity at Support Group, so I took the Vurderingseksemplar stairs. I grabbed a cookie and poured some lemonade into a

Dixie cup and then turned around. A boy was staring at me. I was quite sure I’d never seen him before. Long and leanly muscular, he dwarfed the molded plastic elementary school chair he was sitting in. Mahogany hair, straight and short. He looked my age, maybe a year older, and he sat with his tailbone against the edge of the chair, his posture aggressively poor, one hand half in a pocket of dark jeans. I looked away, suddenly conscious of my myriad insufficiencies. I was wearing old jeans, which had once been tight but now sagged in weird places, and a yellow T-shirt

advertising a band I didn’t even like anymore. Also my hair: I had this pageboy haircut, and I hadn’t even bothered to, like, brush it. Furthermore, I had ridiculously fat chipmunked cheeks, a side effect of treatment. I looked like a normally proportioned person with a balloon for a head. This was not even to mention the cankle situation. And yet – I cut a glance to him, and his eyes were still on me. It occurred to me why they call it eye contact.

I walked into the circle and sat down next to Isaac, two seats away from the boy. I glanced again. He was still watching me. Look, let me just say it: He was hot. A nonhot boy stares at you relentlessly and it is, at best, awkward and, at worst, a form of assault. But a hot boy ... well. I pulled out my phone and clicked it so it would display the time: 4:59. The circle filled in with the unlucky twelve-toeighteens, and then Patrick started us out with the serenity prayer: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. The guy was still staring at me. I felt rather blushy. Finally, I decided that the proper strategy was to stare back. Boys do not have a monopoly on the Staring Business, after all. So I looked him over as Patrick acknowledged for the thousandth time his ball-lessness etc., and soon it was a staring contest. After a while the boy smiled, and then finally his blue eyes glanced away. When he looked back at me, I flicked my eyebrows up to say, I win.

pageboy haircut kortklipt ridiculously latterlig chipmunk cheeks kinn som et jordekorn side effect bivirkning treatment behandling cankle (calf + ankle) der leggen møter ankelen the cankle situation de hovne anklene lift elevator Shailene Woodley as Hazel and Ansel Elgort as Augustus in the film The Fault in Our Stars (2014).Vurderingseksemplar cut a glance kastet et blikk occurred to me falt meg inn relentlessly nådeløst assault angrep serenity prayer bønn om sinnsro courage mot proper strategy passende strategi acknowledged erkjente ball-lessness Patrick har fjernet en testikkel på grunn av kreft flicked my eyebrows løftet øyebrynene

UNDERSTANDING

1 Answer the following questions. a Why is Hazel’s mum worried about her? b Why doesn’t Hazel take the elevator? c Where do Hazel and the boy meet? d How does Hazel describe the new boy? e Why does Hazel feel insufficient? f What does she do in response when the new boy stares at her?

VIEWPOINTS 2 Discuss the questions. a Do you think this a romantic description of a first meeting? Why or why not? b What do you think happens after the support group session is over? c This extract is from a novel where both main characters, two teenagers, have cancer. It is an entertaining and humorous book. How can humour help us in difficult situations? d Are some topics too serious to be joked about? If so, which? MATHS MOVES 3 A polling organization called Gallup asked Americans if they believe in love at first sight. This is what they answered: polling meningsmålingVurderingseksemplar

NO 47% NO OPINION 1%

YES 52%

a Finish these sentences about what the pie chart shows. The majority said that ... The minority ... 47% ... b Does anything about the statistics surprise you?

SPEAKING SPOT

4 Discuss in groups. a What other stories or films do you know of where someone falls in love at first sight? b Do you believe in love at first sight? Why or why not? c How do you start a conversation with somebody you would like to get to know? What is the perfect opening line?

Did you just come out of the oven? Because you’re hot!

WRITING WORKSHOP 5 Choose one of the tasks. a Write a paragraph about Hazel and Augustus’ first meeting from Augustus’ point of view. b Write a paragraph about the first time you met someone you know. Use these questions if you need help getting started: • What was the time and place? • What did you immediately notice about the other person? • What made him or her interesting? How did you make contact? c Write the first conversation Hazel and Augustus have after the meeting.Vurderingseksemplar

DIGITAL DIVE

6 Go online to find more information about John Green. Write 5–8 sentences about him.

EXPLORE MORE

7 Watch the movie version of The Fault in Our Stars or read the whole novel. “A novel of life and death and the people caught in between, The Fault in Our Stars is John Green at his best. You laugh, you cry, and then you come back for more.”

Markus Zusak, author of The Book Thief