78 pages • 2 hours read
Steve PembertonA Chance in the World
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Introduction
A Chance in the World: An Orphan Boy, A Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home
- Genre: Nonfiction; memoir
- Originally Published: 2012
- Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
- Structure/Length: 3 parts; approx. 272 pages; approx. 8 hours on audio
- Central Concern: Author Steve Pemberton tells the story of his foster care as a child, his search for family members as a young adult, and his quest for personal closure and fulfillment in later adulthood.
- Potential Sensitivity Issues: Abuse; racism; foster care; drug and alcohol abuse; child physical and sexual abuse; child neglect
Steve Pemberton, Author
- Bio: Placed in foster care at age 3; inspired and comforted by books and stories throughout childhood; attended Boston College; served as Monster.com’s Diversity Officer and Vice-President of Diversity and Inclusion and Walgreens’s Divisional Vice-President and Chief Diversity Officer; a popular motivational speaker; board member for organizations that serve underprivileged children
- Other Works: The Lighthouse Effect: How Ordinary People Can Have an Extraordinary Impact in the World (2021); A Chance in the World (Young Readers Edition): An Orphan Boy, a Mysterious Past, and How He Found a Place Called Home (2021)
CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:
- The Search for Belonging and a Sense of Home
- Identity, Race, and Racism
- The Evolution of the Meaning of Family
STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:
- Develop an understanding of the social and cultural contexts regarding Steve’s foster situation and his willingness to overcome difficult circumstances through education.
- Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of The Search for Belonging and a Sense of Home; Identity, Race, and Racism; and The Evolution of the Meaning of Family.
- Put together and present a collection of books that inspire you, drawing comparisons to the books that inspire Steve in the memoir.
- Analyze and evaluate plot and character details to draw conclusions regarding identity, foster care, and other topics in structured essay responses.
