A Walk to Remember

A Walk to Remember

• Genre: Fiction; romance
• Originally Published: 1999
• Reading Level/Interest: Grades 9-12; college/adult
• Structure/Length: 13 chapters; approx. 256 pages; approx. 4 hours, 24 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: Fifty-seven-year-old Landon Carter reflects on the memory of his first true love, Jamie Sullivan, when the two were in high school. While Landon, at age 17, initially can see only differences between Jamie and him, he soon realizes what a beautiful person Jamie is inside and out.
• Potential Sensitivity Issues: Social acceptance; terminal illness; death

Nicholas Sparks, Author

• Bio: Born in 1965 in Nebraska; earned an athletic scholarship to the University of Notre Dame, from which he graduated magna cum laude; worked in real estate, sales, and manufacturing during unsuccessful attempts to get his early novels published and enter law school; met with great success when his breakout bestseller The Notebook was published in 1996; sets many of his books in North Carolina, where he currently lives; established the Nicholas Sparks Foundation in 2011 which focuses on global and cultural education
• Other Works: The Notebook (1996); Message in a Bottle (1998); Nights in Rodanthe (2002); The Lucky One (2008); The Longest Ride (2013); Dreamland (2022)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• Faith, Sickness, and Miracles
• Overturning Stereotypes
• New Generation Romance and Old Family Feuds

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Develop an understanding of the social and historical contexts regarding the 1950s setting and the community tensions that drive Landon’s conflict.
• Analyze paired texts and other brief resources to make connections via the text’s themes of Faith, Sickness, and Miracles, Overturning Stereotypes, and New Generation Romance and Old Family Feuds.
• Plan and compose an epilogue to describe Landon’s life following the events of the novel based on text details.

Analyze the motif and plot details of the novel to draw conclusions in structured essay responses regarding miracles, The Christmas Angel, and other topics.