As part of our final lesson on the novel before tomorrow's test, we viewed an NEA "Let's Read" interview with the author ,E.Gaines, discussing the novel. Bobby pointed out similarities between the author's life and the character-narrator,Grant Wiggins, and we discussed how an author's life influences his or her writing. We further explored the author's comments about his intention in the novel to portray Grant as a flawed person due to his lack of faith. We analyzed portions of the text at the novel's conclusion to locate those passages highlighting Grant's lack of faith and how the lack of faith impairs Grant's character development . On the other hand, Grant has changed and Bobby highlighted how the narrator has shed some of his selfish tendencies by the end of the novel. We last included in the virtual notebook some final ideas and thoughts about Jefferson as a Christ-like figure by incorporating Jefferson's comments about carrying " the cross" for the community. I reminded Bobby to also study the vocabulary on the study guides for tomorrow 's test .