Wednesday, August 20, 2008

The Lightning Thief Discussion Questions


After reading The Lightning Thief, answer the following discussion questions:

1. What does Percy discover about the Greek gods at Camp Half Blood? What do they have to do with the camp?

2. What does Percy's fight with Echidna reveal about his character? What new things does he discover about himself?

3. When describing the effects of Mist, Chiron says, "Remarkable, really, the lengths humans will go to fit things into their version of reality." How is this true in the novel?

4. How does the last line of the prophecy - you shall fail to save what matters most in the end - come true? What do you think of this ending? Did Percy make the right choice?

5. The Lightning Thief will be released as a movie in November 2009. Who would you cast as Percy? How about Annabeth and Grover?

The Talented Clementine Discussion Questions


After you have read The Talented Clementine, answer the following discussion questions:

1. The 3rd and 4th graders in Clementine's school are putting on a talent show. If you were participating in Talent-Palooza, Night of the Stars, what would be your act? What other talents do you have?

2. On page 78, Clementine's mom says buying the not very sensible purple "WOW" shoes is "one of the benefits of being a grown-up". What are some other benefits of being a grown-up? What are the benefits of being a child? Which do you think is better?

3. Clementine finally finds her talent with her attention to detail. Why does the audience applaud for Clementine, even though she wasn't in the show? Why was her role important?

4. Clementine felt that the Talent-Palooza was the luckiest day of her life. What was the luckiest day in your life?

The City of Ember Discussion Questions




After reading The City of Ember, answer the following questions:

1. Children choose their careers at the age of 12. Lina is excited to be a messenger and Doon is excited to go down in the Pipeworks. What type of career in Ember would you like to have? Why?

2. Lina discovers her friend Lizzie is accepting food from Looper who has stolen it from the storerooms. Why does Lina turn down the gifts that Lizzie offers? What food would you miss the most if you lived in Ember?

3. The mayor of Ember seems to be very corrupt. He limits the freedom of the townspeople, yet the townspeople accept his behavior. Why do they act this way? What would you do in their situation?

4. The power outages in Ember keep occurring and are getting longer. How would you prepare for not having light? What would you do during the power outages?

5. The City of Ember is the first book in a four-book series. The second book is called The People of Sparks. Do you think that you will read it? Why or why not?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

No Talking Discussion Questions



After you have read No Talking, answer the following discussion questions:

1. Who are the Unshushables? How do the teachers at Laketon Elementary feel about the Unshushables?

2. What happens when the fifth graders stop talking? How do Mrs. Marlow, Mrs. Akers, and Mr. Burton react to the contest?

3. When Mrs. Hiatt joins the contest she includes the entire school in the competition. Even though the book did not say, who do you think would have the hardest time with the contest? Do you think that any of the grades would do better than others?

4. Picking out words when talking is a good way to communicate with others. If you could only say three words today, which three would you pick out to use for the whole day?