Serafina and the Black Cloak

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. A magnate is someone who achieves great success, wealth, influence, and/or power, typically through business ownership. Thinking about advancements in technology, goods and services, travel, media, and other types of progress in the last century, name three or four magnates and the area of business for which they are known.

Teaching Suggestion: Students might readily name magnates like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Oprah Winfrey, Jeff Bezos, and Rihanna; earlier American magnates (often mentioned in social studies/history classes) may also come to mind: Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller. Connect students’ ideas to the historical George Washington Vanderbilt (responsible for the construction of the Biltmore Estate, setting of Serafina and the Black Cloak) and his grandfather Cornelius Vanderbilt (family patriarch whose shipping and railroad enterprises earned the family millions).

• This entry on Cornelius Vanderbilt on History.com briefly summarizes his rise to wealth and influence.
• This brief bio of George Vanderbilt on the Biltmore’s website provides info and an interesting portrait for potential help in visualizing the character.