Book Discussion

Who would the book appeal to? This book would be appealing to about everyone. I think people who maybe grew up in a poor family would relate to it easy, and people who grew up down south who knows what it was like going through what Rick went through everyday. It is kind of a hard book to read, I would say the age of fifteen and up would be fine reading this book.

What about it is appealing? The way Rick shows all his emotions and feelings really make the book exciting, it shows what he went through on a day-t0-day basis.

What would students need to know in order to understand the book? The students would need to know that life down south is alot different from life in Iowa. They would also need to know that he was a very poor kid growing up, he went through stuff most kids don't even think about going through to survive as a child.

What issues does the book deal with that students might be interesting in discussing? Some interesting issues that go on in the book is seeing what he went through when he was a child, he grew up in a very poor family, and learning about what he had to do is very interesting to me. If you could think of the worst example as a father, Rick's would fit the description almost perfectly, he would always walk out on his family, he was never there when his children needed him the most, even though his family was poor, that is no excuse to walk out on them when his children needed a father in there lives, and his wife needed a husband in her life.

Is there any "mature" content in the book? If so, what kind of content? How would you deal with such content in class? There is some mature content in this book, it talks about how Rick's father would beat people. His mother went through some depression I think by what she did to her children, but mostly sadness, she was in a way embarrassed that her children had to live such a rough life style. I would deal with it in a way that I knew exactly what I said was right about his childhood.