Chapters 21-26
As The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull hurtles towards its conclusion, Kiffo borrows a friend’s motorbike so he and Calma can keep trailing Miss Payne. The plan goes awry and things don’t end the way Calma or Kiffo intended. This leads to a poignant moment when Calma explains precisely what Kiffo means to her and what she learned from their friendship. And The Pitbull? Well, there are a couple of revelations about her as well…
ACTIVITY ONE
Read Chapter 23 carefully. What does Calma learn from her friendship with Kiffo? Use quotes to support your answer.
ACTIVITY TWO
The Whole Business with Kiffo and the Pitbull features a series of flashbacks. What do we learn about Kiffo, Calma and their friendship throughout these flashbacks? Use quotes to support your answer.
ACTIVITY THREE
Using a dictionary, define the following in your own words: manoeuvre, converge, homophone, phenomenon, intention, marinade.
Key Quotations
• “A close friend.” p.225.
• “…he actually impoverished their lives.” p.226
• “Kiffo was not exactly a saint.” p.227
• “Kiffo’s life was a war zone.” p.228.
• “None of you liked Kiffo.” p.228.
• “Kiffo didn’t tell me much about you, Mr Kiffing, but he didn’t need to. I could see it in his eyes and the bruises that he did his best to conceal.” p.228.
• “…a lot of the anger that Kiffo carried around with him, the hatred of authority figures, his tendency towards mindless violence, had to have their roots in your treatment of him. Some of his worst characteristics were those that you taught him.” p.228.
• “So what did he get at school? A different kind of violence, that’s what. The worst type of violence, if that’s possible. Because his father was just beating his body, whereas the school was breaking his spirit All the time I knew him, and I spent a lot of time with him in class, he was told that he was stupid.” p.229.
• “And if you tell someone they’re stupid enough times, they will believe you. And Kiffo did believe it.” p.229.
• “His teachers hated him.” p.229.
• “He could be absolutely vile in class.” p.229.
• “And that’s what I learned from Kiffo. That underneath we are all pretty much the same, that we shouldn’t judge by appearances, as he was judged his entire life.” p.230.
• “And for a while, I knew what it must be like to inhabit Kiffo’s world – a world where everyone judges you and finds you wanting. The only person who didn’t do that was Kiffo. It didn’t matter to him what other people thought. He gave me friendship and support.” p.230.
• “I loved Kiffo. Forty thousand brothers could not, with all their quantity of love, make up my sum. p.231.
• “…she’s also like the best mate that someone could have. I trust her like I don’t trust no one else.” p.257