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BOOK INTRODUCTION

TRASHED BY DERF BACKDERFEvery week we pile our garbage on the curb and it disappears—like magic! The reality is anything but, of course. Trashed follows the raucous escapades of three 20-something friends as they clean the streets of pile after pile of stinking garbage, while battling annoying small-town bureaucrats, bizarre townfolk, sweltering summer heat, and frigid winter storms. Trashed is fi ction, but it is inspired by Derf’s own experiences as a garbage man. Interspersed are nonfi ction pages that detail what our garbage is and where it goes. The answers will stun you and your students. Hop on the garbage truck named Betty and ride along with Derf on a journey into the vast, secret world of garbage.

Trashed was selected as one of the Top Ten 2016 Graphic Novels for Teens by the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

AuthorDerf Backderf is the bestselling author of My Friend Dahmer and the recipient of the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. His weekly comic strip, The City, appeared in more than one hundred newspapers over the past twenty-two years. He lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ages 14 and up

CURRICULAR RATIONALE Although Trashed is a work of fi ction, Backderf pulls from real-life experience and factual evidence to add to the impact of the story. Primarily told as a narrative, Trashed also includes data from Columbia University’s Biannual Report on Municipal Waste and the EPA’s Biannual Report on Solid Municipal Waste. The narrative follows protagonist JB’s time as a sanitation worker through the four seasons and also looks at the struggle of identity after high school. Within the nonfi ction elements of the text, Backderf exposes troubling facts about the state of waste in the United States.

USING THE GUIDE/STANDARDS ALIGNMENT This guide is structured for use during and after reading the text. For use while reading the text, discussion questions and writing prompts can be used as formative assessments throughout. After reading the text, the extension activities build upon the nonfi ction aspect of Trashed and help students dig deeper into the topics introduced within the material. This guide is aligned to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The correlating standards can be found after each question, prompt, and activity. For CCSS, the grade span is 9–10 and 11–12 though Trashed is primarily applicable to 10th through 12th grade and college-level courses. Details on the guidelines for particular standards can be found on page 4 of this guide.

BY DERF BACKDERF

Cover illustration © 2015 John BackderfAuthor photo © 2015 Laura WimbelsCover design and coloring by Pamela Notarantonio

U.S. $24.95 | Can. $29.95 | U.K. £15.99

Every week we pile our garbage on the curb and it disappears—like magic! The reality is anything but, of course. Trashed, Derf Backderf ’s follow-up to the critically acclaimed, award-winning international bestseller My Friend Dahmer, is an ode to the crap job of all crap jobs—garbage collector.

Anyone who has ever been trapped in a soul-sucking gig will relate to this tale. Trashed follows the raucous escapades of three twentysomething friends as they clean the streets of pile after pile of stinking garbage, while battling annoying small-town bureaucrats, bizarre townsfolk, sweltering summer heat, and frigid winter storms. Trashed is fiction but is inspired by Derf ’s own experiences as a garbageman. Interspersed with this comedic epic of reeking garbage cans and exploding trash bags are nonfiction pages that detail what our garbage is and where it goes. The reality will stun you.

So hop on the garbage truck named Betty and ride along with Derf on a journey into the vast, secret world of garbage. Trashed is a hilarious, stomach-churning tale that will leave you laughing—and wincing—in disbelief.

MORE THAN 250 PAGES OF ALL-NEW STORY AND ART

★ “[An] entertaining ode to the odiferous realities of getting by.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The American dream is to turn goods into trash as fast as possible.”—Russell Baker, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Growing Up

P R A I S E F O R B A C K D E R F ’ S

M Y F R I E N D D A H M E R

National—and International—Bestseller

Named BEST OF 2012 by Time, The Village Voice, The A.V. Club,

comiXology, Boing Boing, Publishers Weekly, MTV Geek, and more!

2013 ALA/YALSA Alex Award Winner

2014 Prix Revelation Award Winner at the Angoulême International Comics Festival

2015 YALSA Award Winner for excellence in Narrative Nonfiction

DERF BACKDERF

An imprint of ABRAMS115 West 18th StreetNew York, NY 10011www.abramscomicarts.com

Printed in U.S.A.DERF BACKDERF

BY T H E B E S T S E L L I NG AU T H O R O F M Y F R I E N D DA H M E R

U.S. $24.95 Can. $29.95 U.K. £15.99ISBN 978-1-4197-1453-5

A N O D E T O T H E

C R A P JO B O F

A L L C R A P JO B S

Americans generate about 389 million tons of trash annually.

We recycle only 29 percent of our trash, and send 63.5 percent

of it—246.9 million tons every year—to landfills.

On average, 5.06 pounds of waste per person is

disposed of every day . . .

and there are 321 million of us in the U.S. alone!

Here’s how it all breaks down, from a 2013 report issued by the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency:

DERF BACKDERF is the bestselling, award-winning author of My Friend Dahmer and a recipient of the prestigious Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for political cartooning. For almost twenty-five years, his weekly syndicated comic strip, The City, appeared in more than one hundred and forty alternative newspapers. Derf lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

Trashed copyright © 2015 John Backderf. Published by Abrams ComicArts

Teaching Guide wirtten by Kellee Moye http://www.unleashingreaders.com @kelleemoye © 2015

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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS / WRITING PROMPTS• What role do JB’s friends, specifi cally Mike and Magee, play in his story? How do each of the other secondary characters also play a role in

JB’s evolution in Trashed? How does each of them a¤ ect JB? (RL.9-10.3)

• Do you think the ending of Trashed is a conclusion to JB’s story? What do you think his future looks like? (RL.9-10.5, RL.11-12.3)

• Using the clues given in the book, what do you think JB was like in high school? Provide evidence from the text to support your conclusion. (RL.9-10.1, RL.11-12.1, RL.9-10.3)

• What are the overarching themes of Trashed? How does Backderf develop the themes in the text? Pull fi ction and nonfi ction evidence from the text to support your answers. (RL.9-10.2)

• Trashed’s structure is unique in its mix of fi ction and fact. Why do you think the author chose to mix the two instead of working within only one genre? What e¤ ect does Backderf’s decision to shape the text as a fi ctional narrative instead of one based on his own personal experience have on the work as a whole? (RL.9-10.5, RI.9-10.3, RI.11-12.5)

• JB’s tone within the text could be described as negative—portrayed as annoyed, bitter, or hopeless. Some examples can be found on pages 10–11, 37, and 202. How would you describe JB’s tone? What words are specifi cally used in the text to set the tone? Why do you think the author chose to portray JB’s character in this way? (RL.9-10.4)

• What statement does Backderf convey by including factual evidence about municipal waste? How is his claim developed over time? How is rhetoric used in the text to advance his point of view? (RI.9-10.5, RI.11-12.5, RI.9-10.6, RI.11-12.6)

• After reviewing the information Backderf includes from the Columbia University and EPA reports, can you determine how he chose the order in which he revealed information? What e¤ ect does the order of information have on the overall impact of the message? (RI.11-12.7)

• Was there any factual information revealed in Trashed that surprised you? Why did it surprise you? What impact has the text had on your actions or how you will think about waste in the future? (W.9-12.9)

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EXTENSION ACTIVITIESThese activities build upon each other. Each activity works as a stand-alone exercise, but if done consecutively, you will need to draw on information accessed within the discussion questions and writing prompts on page 2 of this guide. (RI.9-12.6, RI.9-12.5, W.9-12.2, W.9-12.8, W.9-12.9)

• Separate students into groups of two or more. Assign each group to read either the Columbia University report or the EPA report. As a group, they will present the information they found within the report and address the following:

- How did Backderf transform the information within the report to write Trashed?

- What type of information did he choose to include and omit? Why?

- Is there any information omitted that you think should have been included in Trashed?

- What was the di¤ erence between reading the municipal report as a text versus the visual format of a graphic novel?

- Compare your reactions to reading these facts within the graphic novel versus the text-based municipal reports.

• After reading Trashed and the two Municipal Waste reports, show students An Inconvenient Truth (or another documentary about the environment or waste processing). After viewing, instruct students to write a response addressing the following:

- What similar information do all four media share?

- What details are shared in An Inconvenient Truth that are not shared in the other forms of media? Which details are not shared?

- Determine why each creator might have deliberately included or omitted these di¤ ering pieces of information. What impact do those omissions have on the overall piece?

- What similar themes can be found among the four media? What themes di¤ er?

• Using information from all four forms of media, instruct students to write up an action plan for themselves, their home, and their school in response to the environmental issues addressed. To determine the best course of action, students can follow the last four steps of the six-step creative problem-solving process.

- List as many feasible solutions for the issues addressed as possible.

- Determine criteria on how to choose the best solutions for your action plan.

- Using the criteria determined, rank the proposed solutions.

- Using the highest ranked solutions, write a detailed action plan outlining solutions to environmental issues in all aspects of daily life.

RESOURCES • http://www.americanchemistry.com/Policy/Energy/Energy-Recovery/2014-Update-of-Potential-for-Energy-Recovery-from-

Municipal-Solid-Waste-and-Non-Recycled-Plastics.pdf 2014 Energy and Economic Value of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW), including Non-Recycled Plastics (NRP), Currently Landfilled in the Fifty States

• http://www.epa.gov/wastes/nonhaz/municipal/pubs/2013_advncng_smm_rpt.pdf Advancing Sustainable Materials Management: Facts and Figures 2013 Report

COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDSBelow are the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards that can be met by extending Trashed with these questions, prompts, and activities.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/RI.9-10.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/RI.11-12.1 Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.3 Analyze how complex characters (e.g., those with multiple or conflicting motivations) develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/11-12.3 Analyze the impact of the author’s choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/11-12.4 Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.5 Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such e¤ects as mystery, tension, or surprise.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.3 Analyze how the author unfolds an analysis or series of ideas or events, including the order in which the points are made, how they are introduced and developed, and the connections that are drawn between them.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.5 Analyze in detail how an author’s ideas or claims are developed and refined by particular sentences, paragraphs, or larger portions of a text (e.g., a section or chapter).

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/11-12.5 Analyze and evaluate the e¤ectiveness of the structure an author uses in his or her exposition or argument, including whether the structure makes points clear, convincing, and engaging.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/9-10.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6 Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is particularly e¤ective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL/11-12.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in di¤erent media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W/9-12.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the e¤ective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W/9-12.8 Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches e¤ectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W/9-12.9 Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.