# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: MM

Evidence:
"Where is Donavan?" I said to Melody.
A smile stretched across her face. "Working on sausage number four."
Donovan's fat, and Melody can be kind of a turd. But I like that about them.
The door to the classroom opened, and somebody came through it, but it wasn't Donovan. Not the guy I knew.
The long, limp blonde hair was gone, hair that people always told him would look nice if he were a girl. It was buzzed short, like he was an army guy. The braces had disappeared. Big horse teeth hung out of his mouth because his upper lip was too short to cover them. And something else was missing too, about 25 pounds of boob, butt, and stomach.
"Donovan!" I yelled. "I saved you a seat, man. What happened to you?"
I knew he'd been away at camp the whole summer, but this was ridiculous.
He walked right past me." (pg. 6)

Claim and Reasoning: This is a MM because he was remembering what Donovan looked like and now Donovan looks different. Eric sees that his friend's look is not the only thing that has changed, it is also his personality. The reason that Eric thinks this way is because, when Donovan and Eric have not seen each other for the whole summer, why would he not even say hi or sit with him when Eric saved him a seat? Remembering what Donovan used to look like highlights for Eric how different Donovan is acting, too, from how he was before summer break.

Answer to Anchor Question: This memory is important because it gives him a warning that Donovan is going to be different.

Literary Element: Throughout the story Eric sees how much Donovan really changed. Donovan was originally a friend but now he is an enemy.

# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: AA

Evidence:
"While Colin was telling me about their unholy union, Jason and Adrian came up to us in the hallway. As they passed, Crazypants grabbed the strap of my backpack and pulled me close to him. Melody wasn't around. He put his mouth to my ear and said, "By the way: Eric Haskins is an imbecile."
He checked me against the bricks. Jason and Adrian walked away, laughing. Colin and I just stared at each other, not saying anything."  (pg. 97-98)

Claim and Reasoning: This is an AA moment because it keeps showing up in the book lots of times. It is important because it shows how helpless Eric feels during those moments and how he starts to worry that next time when it happens it will be worse.

Answer to Anchor Question:
I think it keeps showing up because it shows how he can not keep doing this forever and he will need to defend himself sooner or later.

Literary Element: One of the themes is "you can only push someone so much before they push back." My reason to support this is that each time Eric gets bullied he becomes more angry that he can not defend himself. It becomes clear that something has to change.

# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: CC

Evidence:
"Donovan, hey," I yelled again. "I saved you a seat."
"Grunt!" Jason Crazypants stood up. His perma-angry face glared at me. "Shut your dumb mouth," he said.
The classroom was still noisy, so Mr. Whitner didn't notice.
"What did he say?" I asked Melody.
"Don't listen to him," she said, loud enough for Jason to hear. "He's a jerk."
I turned back to them, but now Donovan was the one standing up. He was staring at me too, like I was a total stranger. And he didn't have nearly enough lip to cover his scowl.' (pg. 7)

Claim and Reasoning: This is a CC because Eric and Donovan are best friends. If you saw one of your best friends, why would you not say anything to them, even though you spent the whole summer apart.

Answer to Anchor Question:   The reason that Donovan might be ignoring Eric is that he became friends with a bully booker (someone who selects a a person to be the class grunt and they will target that person to bully them). Because Donovan wants to be friends with the bully booker, he can not be seen being friends with Eric.  This is because Eric is the sixth grade grunt.

Literary Element:  One of the themes in the book is "friends change and so do you."  My reasons to support this is that Donovan is not nice to him anymore so now this will make Eric choose his friends more carefully.

# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: AM

Evidence:
"On its cover were the golden stencils Daniel Friedman had described to me. THE BOOK in bold letters and a golden crown. It was directly in front of me.
I read it as quickly as someone can read a thing that's ruined his life, which I guess is to say, I didn't read it very quickly at all. With each page I felt another sting. It was describing the last year of my life. As if my whole life had been planned out to this point. And oh yes --
I found out what the Grunt is." (pg. 223-224)

Claim and Reasoning: This is an AM because the whole time he was trying to figure out why he was the grunt and what the grunt was. The reason he wanted to know what the grunt was is because then he could change so he would not fit the description of the grunt.

Answer to Anchor Question: Now that Eric knows the description of the grunt, he can change himself so he does not fit the description of the grunt. Instead he merges his journal entries with the bully book so he can stop future bully bookers.

Literary Element: Throughout the story Eric changed . Originally he wanted to not be the grunt and help himself. Eventually he wanted to stop the bullies and help everyone.

# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: WW

Evidence:
"When I get home from school and I'm safe from it all, the last thing I want is to relive it. Especially with my crazy mom.
She was like, "How could you do this! How could you hurt someone!"
And I tried to tell her it was complicated. I had good reasons. It was an accident.
"When is there ever a good reason to hurt someone, Eric? That's not what I taught you. That's not the son I raised!"" (pg. 67)

Claim and Reasoning:   This is a WW because his mom is telling him "when is there ever a good reason to hurt someone". This is also a WW because his mom is wiser than him and giving him good information.

Answer to Anchor Question:   His mom is telling him this because Eric's mom would never want him to hurt someone and she would never want him to get hurt.

Literary Element:  Eric is realizing with all the bulling it is not only affecting him it is also affecting other people. Because he was trying to get information from Colin, Colin accidentally got hurt. Because he hurt Colin, Eric's mom is now worried about his behavior. Each incident of the bullying creates a chain reaction.

# data[].attributes.body
Signpost: TQ

Evidence:
"I can't imagine this happening to someone like Jason Crazypants or even Colin Greene. They would have fought back, or ignored it and gone on living.
I was obsessed with why I was the Grunt. What made me the Grunt? But I totally accepted that I was the Grunt.
I never once said, This is not who I am. Because, maybe, I didn't know who I was, so I just let someone else tell me.
I never talked about it, not to Dad or Mom or Whitner, because I was ashamed.
Ashamed of the person they told me I was."    (pg. 226)

Claim and Reasoning: I think this is a TQ because he is asking himself why am I the grunt? He is wondering if he might be partly responsible because he did not fight back. He is realizing that he was not confident enough in who he is and allowed the bullies to tell him who he is. These are tough questions to ask yourself.

Answer to Anchor Question: The reason this is important is because he is realizing that he played a role in making himself the grunt. He has to admit some things about himself that he is not proud of.

Literary Element: Eric is thinking about how things would have gone if he made different choices. If he would have made friends or if he would have talked to somebody about it then he would not have been isolated and the bullying would have not worked.