The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender
Leslye Walton, 2014
Candlewick
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780763665661
Summary
Magical realism, lyrical prose, and the pain and passion of human love haunt this hypnotic generational saga.
Foolish love appears to be the Roux family birthright, an ominous forecast for its most recent progeny, Ava Lavender. Ava in all other ways a normal girl—is born with the wings of a bird.
In a quest to understand her peculiar disposition and a growing desire to fit in with her peers, sixteen-year old Ava ventures into the wider world, ill-prepared for what she might discover and naive to the twisted motives of others. Others like the pious Nathaniel Sorrows, who mistakes Ava for an angel and whose obsession with her grows until the night of the summer solstice celebration. That night, the skies open up, rain and feathers fill the air, and Ava’s quest and her family’s saga build to a devastating crescendo.
First-time author Leslye Walton has constructed a layered and unforgettable mythology of what it means to be born with hearts that are tragically, exquisitely human. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Tacoma, Washington, USA
• Education—M.F.A., Portland State University
• Currently—lives in Seattle, Washington
Leslye Walton was born in the Pacific Northwest. Perhaps because of this, she has developed a strange kinship with the daffodil. She too can only achieve beauty after a long, cold sulk in the rain. Her novel, The Strange and Beautiful Live of Ava Lavender, was inspired by a particularly long sulk in a particularly cold rainstorm.
Leslye Walton currently lives in Seattle, Washington where she spends most of her time in her own world—which, for the record, is far better than the real one anyway—with her fittingly-named Chihuahua, Mr. Darcy and her spirit guide, a cat named Griff.
When she's not writing, she teaches middle school students how to read and write, and most importantly, how to be kind to each other, even when they really don't feel like it.
About Leslye's Work
Leslye works best under the light of the moon, and will often wake her friends in the middle of the night to ask if they know another word for vivacious or if they remember what the guy sitting behind them at dinner last Tuesday ordered for dessert. Fortunately, Leslye has very forgiving friends.
Extras
- When Leslye was younger, she wanted to be a singer, a writer, a teacher, or a mermaid, in that order. Hey, three outta four ain't bad!
- Oh yeah. Leslye also sings (see above), though these days it's primarily in the shower, or the car or when she can convince talented students to accompany her on the guitar.
- She has a pair of wings tattooed on her left wrist that she got when she learned The Strange and Beautiful Live of Ava Lavender was going to be an actual book. She plans on memorializing each book with a tattoo. So far she has six tattoos…and one published book. Oops. Looks like she has some catching up to do! (From the publisher and author's website.)
Book Reviews
[This novel] should be remembered for the devastatingly beautiful character of Ava Lavender and how she depicts just what it is to be different.
Guardian (UK)
(Starred review.) Walton debuts with an entrancing and sumptuously written multigenerational novel wrapped in the language of fable, magical realism, and local legend. Ostensibly about a 16-year-old born with wings, the novel is also a rich retelling of Ava Lavender's family history.... It's a story that adults and teenagers can appreciate equally, one...less about love than about the way love can be thwarted and denied (Ages 14–up).
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) Walton’s novel is both strange and beautiful in the best of ways. ... This multigenerational tale examines love and considers the conflicting facets of loving and being loved — desire, despair, depression, obsession, self-love, and courage. ... It is beautifully crafted and paced, mystical yet grounded by universal themes and sympathetic characters. A unique book, highly recommended for readers looking for something a step away from ordinary. —Jill Heritage Maza, Montclair Kimberley Academy, Montclair, NJ
School Library Journal
(Starred review.) In a sweeping intergenerational story infused with magical realism, debut author Leslye Walton tethers grand themes of love and loss to the earthbound sensibility of Ava Lavender as she recollects one life-altering summer as a teenager.... Walton presents challenges that most teens will hopefully never face. She writes of love, betrayal, birth, murder, affection and rape—and wraps them in prose so radiant that readers feel carried by Ava's narrative. The heroine's humor and wisdom as she looks back at her life let us know that she is a survivor.
Shelf Awareness
[Ava's voice] is a beautiful voice—poetic, witty, and as honest as family mythology will allow. There are many sorrows in Walton’s debut, and most of them are Ava’s through inheritance. Readers should prepare themselves for a tale where myth and reality, lust and love, the corporal and the ghostly, are interchangeable and surprising.
Booklist
The story's language is gorgeous.... Disturbingly, a horrific assault acts as the vehicle of redemption, magically bringing people together for reasons that make sense only in the dreamlike metaphysics of literary device. Gorgeous prose for readers willing to be blindsided (16 & up).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. The three Lavender women, Emilienne, Viviane, and Ava, all face tragedy in their lives. Discuss how each woman responds to these events. What does this say about them? Do you think the responses are fitting for the characters?
2. This novel provides a cast of many memorable characters, most of whom have strong personalities, as well as unusual names. What do the supporting characters—Cardigan Cooper, Wilhelmina Dovewolf, Marigold Pie, Rene Roux, Gabe—bring to the story? What role do they play, both for the main characters and in the plot?
3. Would the people of Pinnacle Lane have accepted Ava had she not been attacked, or was the horror of what happened to her necessary for them to accept her? In other words, is empathy necessary for acceptance?
4. Wilhelmina says, Just because love don’t look the way you think it should, don’t mean you don’t have it (page 243). How does Emilienne interpret this? Do you agree with Wilhelmina?
5. Do you think what happened to Nathaniel at the end was justified? Would you have preferred a more traditional, or perhaps less obtuse, form of punishment?
6. The ending has caused much debate among readers. What do you think happened? Did Ava finally allow herself to fly, or did she succumb to those dark thoughts in the end?
7. Discuss two of the themes in the novel. How do they interact and build upon each other throughout the novel?
8. The novel begins with Emilienne’s story and continues to Viviane’s before leading into Ava’s. What do you think about this format? How does this structure contribute to the reader’s experience, as well as impact the overall plot?
9. The novel is set in a fictitious neighborhood in Seattle, Washington. How does the main setting contribute to the mood of the story? What role does the setting play in the plot?
10. Discuss the use of language throughout the story. What does the French vocabulary add to the story?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)
We Were Liars
E. Lockhart, 2014
Random House Children's
240pp.
ISBN-13: 9780385741262
Summary
A beautiful and distinguished family... A private island... A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy... A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive... A revolution. An accident. A secret... Lies upon lies... True love... The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from National Book Award finalist and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart. Read it. And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Aka—Emily Jenkins
• Birth—1967
• Where—New York, New York, USA
• Rasied—Cambridge, Washington; Seattle, Washington
• Education—B.A., Vassar College; Ph.D., Columbia University
• Currently—lives in New York City area
Emily Jenkins, who also writes under the name E. Lockhart is a writer of children's picture books, young adult novels, and adult fiction.
Her first novel as E. Lockhart, The Boyfriend List, was published in 2005 and has been followed by three sequels, The Boy Book (2006), The Treasure Map of Boys (2009), and Real Live Boyfriends (2010).These four novels are also known as the Ruby Oliver novels, based on their central protagonist.
Lockhart's 2008 novel, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, was a finalist for both the National Book Award for Young People's Literature and the Michael L. Printz Award. Her picture books, written as Emily Jenkins, have won numerous awards, including Boston Globe-Horn Book Award honors and the Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Platinum Book Award. Her 2014 novel, We Were Liars, has achieved wide acclaim from reviewers.
Jenkins grew up in Cambridge, Massachusetts and Seattle, Washington. In high school she attended summer drama schools at Northwestern University and the Children's Theatre Company in Minneapolis. She attended Lakeside School, a private high school in North Seattle. She went to Vassar College and graduate school at Columbia University. She has a doctorate in English literature. She currently lives in the New York City area. (From Wikipedia and the author's website. Retrieved 2/27/2014.)
Book Reviews
(Starred review.) Cadence Sinclair Eastman, heiress to a fortune her grandfather amassed "doing business I never bothered to understand," is the highly unreliable narrator of this searing story...which begins during her 15th summer when she suffers a head injury on the private island Granddad owns off Cape Cod.... Lockhart has created a mystery with an ending most readers won’t see coming, one so horrific it will prompt some to return immediately to page one to figure out how they missed it. At the center of it is a girl who learns the hardest way of all what family means, and what it means to lose the one that really mattered to you (Ages 12–up).
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review.) —The story, while lightly touching on issues of class and race, more fully focuses on dysfunctional family drama, a heart-wrenching romance between Cadence and Gat, and, ultimately, the suspense of what happened during that fateful summer. The ending is a stunner that will haunt readers for a long time to come (Gr 9 Up). —Jenny Berggren, formerly at New York Public Library
School Library Journal
(Starred review.) When Lockhart’s mysterious, haunting novel opens, readers learn that Cady, during this summer, has been involved in a mysterious accident.... She doesn’t return to Beechwood until summer 17, when she recovers snippets of memory, and secrets and lies—as well as issues of guilt and blame, love and truth—all come into play.... Surprising, thrilling, and beautifully executed in spare, precise, and lyrical prose, Lockhart spins a tragic family drama (Grades 7-12). —Ann Kelley
Booklist
(Starred review.) [T]his is no sanitized, modern Disney fairy tale; this is Cinderella with her stepsisters' slashed heels in bloody glass slippers. Cady's fairy-tale retellings are dark.... Brilliantly, Lockhart resists simply crucifying the Sinclairs, which might make the family's foreshadowed tragedy predictable or even satisfying.... Riveting, brutal and beautifully told (14 & up).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Do you trust Cady's narration? Is she lying...or hallucinating?
2. Were the Liars justified in any way to commit the crime they committed?
3. Was the crime successful in any way?
4. Is the Sinclair family acting of their own free will or are they in some way merely moving through patterns established in fairy tales that existed long before them? Consider the author's use of Shakespeare's King Lear and Bronte's Wuthering Heights.
5. Was the ending a surprise...or did you see it coming? Return to earlier passages in the book and locate instances of Lockhart's of foreshadowing of events to come.
6. What does Cady come to learn at the end of the novel—what insights area gained?
(Questions adapted from the author's website.)
Red Rising
Pierce Brown, 2014
Random House
416 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780345539809
Summary
“I live for the dream that my children will be born free,” she says. “That they will be what they like. That they will own the land their father gave them.”
“I live for you,” I say sadly.
Eo kisses my cheek. “Then you must live for more.”
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he spends his life willingly, knowing that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children.
But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and sprawling parks spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
Inspired by a longing for justice, and driven by the memory of lost love, Darrow sacrifices everything to infiltrate the legendary Institute, a proving ground for the dominant Gold caste, where the next generation of humanity’s overlords struggle for power. He will be forced to compete for his life and the very future of civilization against the best and most brutal of Society’s ruling class. There, he will stop at nothing to bring down his enemies ...even if it means he has to become one of them to do so. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1987
• Raised—Colorado; North Carolina; Arizona; Iowa; Texas; and Seattle, Washington
• Education—B.A., Pepperdine University
• Currently—lives in Los Angeles, California
Pierce Brown spent his childhood building forts and setting traps for cousins in the woods of six states and the deserts of two. Graduating from Pepperdine University in 2010, he fancied the idea of continuing his studies at Hogwarts. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a magical bone in his body. So while trying to make it as a writer, he worked as a manager of social media at a startup tech company, toiled as a peon on the Disney lot at ABC Studios, did his time as an NBC page, and gave sleep deprivation a new meaning during his stint as an aide on a U.S. Senate campaign.
Now he lives Los Angeles, where he scribbles tales of spaceships, wizards, ghouls, and most things old or bizarre. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[A] top-notch debut novel... Red Rising ascends above a crowded dystopian field.
USA Today
Red Rising is a sophisticated vision.... Brown will find a devoted audience.
Richmond Times-Dispatch
Compulsively readable and exceedingly entertaining....a must for both fans of classic sci-fi and fervent followers of new school dystopian epics.
Examiner.com
Pierce Brown has done an astounding job at delivering a powerful piece of literature that will definitely make a mark in the minds of readers.
Huffington Post
[A] spectacular adventure...one heart-pounding rid... Pierce Brown’s dizzyingly good debut novel evokes The Hunger Games, Lord of the Flies, and Ender’s Game.... [Red Rising] has everything it needs to become meteoric.
Entertainment Weekly
Debut author Pierce shoots for the next Hunger Games with mixed results in this melodramatic SF series opener. Sixteen-year-old Darrow is a Red miner, the lowest worker caste on Mars.... Determined to lead his people to a better future, Darrow will do anything to win. Pierce offers a Hollywood-ready story with plenty of action and thrills but painfully little originality or plausibility.
Publishers Weekly
Set in the future...this novel dramatizes a story of vengeance, warfare and the quest for power. In the beginning, Darrow, the narrator, works in the mines on Mars, a life of drudgery and subservience. He’s a member of the Reds, an "inferior" class.... As with many similar worlds, the warrior culture depicted here has a primitive, even classical, feel to it, especially since the warriors sport names such as Augustus, Cassius, Apollo and Mercury. A fine novel for those who like to immerse themselves in alternative world.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
(We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher.)
Atom and Eve
Jeff Yager, 2013
Hannacroix Creek Books
255 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781938998348
Summary
In this controversial debut YA science fiction novel, set several years in the future, sixteen-year-old Ricky Romanello, a college freshman, is playing basketball when he collapses and winds up in a coma.
Ricky is suffering from a powerful flu that hits the U.S. population causing deaths and a dramatic economic slowdown. Research scientist Dr. Mandy Fox has been developing an anti-aging drug that she believes might also eradicate the flu. The government rushes approval for the drug before Ricky and the rest of the population can discover there is an unintended side effect that has catastrophic consequences. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 1, 1990
• Where—Stamford, Connecticut, USA
• Education—Westhill High School; studied
professional wrestling in New Jersey and Florida
• Currently—lives in the state of Florida
Book Reviews
[F]or young adult readers and one that is sure to please is Jeff Yager’s Atom & Eve, set several years into the future in which a powerful flu that causes many deaths and a dramatic slowdown of the economy. One of those affected is Ricky Romanello, a college freshman. A research scientist has developed an anti-aging drug that she believes could eradicate the flue and Ricky becomes one of the test subjects. The government approves the drug and the epidemic is soon over. He is cured, but soon he and others discover an unintended side effect that has catastrophic consequences for the entire population. Jeff comes from parents who are writers and, at age 23, his first novel demonstrates that talent can be inherited.
Alan Caruba - Bookviews.com
A destructive strain of flu sweeps America and sixteen-year-old college freshman Ricky Romanello is one of the first to be infected. Presidential candidate Kendra Martin struggles to retain her dignity and power in the face of misogyny in her tour of the red states. And virtuoso young scientist, Dr. Mandy Fox, is beginning to making it big time when discovers a cure for the alarming virus that’s putting America on lock down and crashing world economy. The only problem? It has some very…surprising side-effects. From this point on, you won’t be able to put this book down. A thrilling and innovative piece of sci-fi, Jeff Yager’s debut novel showcases a sharp, intelligent awareness of gender politics and a fresh, lively celebration of feminine achievement – a wholly up-to-date critique of society for modern young adults.
Camilla Laxness Brown - SmackFiction (a mobile app in New Zealand)
An impressive debut novel that will sweep young adults off their feet.
Jeffrey J. Fox, Author
In his wonderful debut novel, Atom and Eve, Jeff Yager has the uncanny ability to look into the female psyche and to open readers to the endless possibilities and creative energy of the divine feminine. A female scientist wanting to play God, female gang members in need of a time-out, a surprisingly effective female presidential candidate, and a 16-year-old male college student whose ominous fate we care about, give Atom and Eve a page-turning richness. Yager has created a fascinating novel where nothing is impossible especially if you are female.
Kim McMillon - KYOS AM, San Joaquin Valley, California
I enjoyed Atom and Eve by Jeff Yager. Started reading and got hooked. It dragged me in and along. This is a book I will be recommending!
Jeff Ganz, Former bookseller
From the suspenseful exposition to the surprise ending with a special twist-- Jeff Yager's debut is a fun and fast read: once you pick it up and get entangled in its fascinating gender-bending storyline, you will not be able to put it down!
Anette Isaacs, International speaker and travel guide
Discussion Questions
1. The very first line in Atom and Eve is this quote by the author: “Men and women will never truly understand each other until they switch roles and view life from the other’s perspective.” This is a primary theme in the novel and leads us to wonder how we would react to such changes. Have you ever thought about what it might be like if you were born as the opposite sex to what you are now?
2. The novel is “set in the near future,” which puts it in the category of “sci-fi.” Why do you think a novelist uses the literary device of setting a novel in the future rather than writing about what’s going on in the present or even in the recent past?
3. Who is your favorite character in Atom and Eve? Why?
4. Who is your least favorite character in Atom and Eve? Why?
5. A key theme in Atom and Eve is how the drug to cure or prevent the pandemic flu starts to have gender-bending consequences. Do you think there is the possibility of someone inventing such a drug? What traits do men have that women might actually benefit from? And what traits do women have that men usually lack that might actually help men?
6. One of the social and political hypotheticals in the novels is that there is a female presidential candidate in the United States, Kendra Martin. Looking ahead to the next presidential election, do you see this as a possibility? Why? Why not? Why do you think there has not yet been a female presidential candidate or president in the United States? Do you see that changing in the near or distant future? Why? Why not?
7. Have you ever thought about how drugs are tested or approved by a government? What did you learn about how that process occurs in the novel that you think mirrors or contradicts what really happens? How long do you think it usually takes to get a new drug or vaccine tested and approved by the federal government?
8. If you were the author of Atom and Eve, are there any characters you would have depicted differently, or plot points that you would have changed? Why?
9. If you could ask the author one question about his novel, what would it be?
10. Find the scene and dialogue you like the most in the novel and pair up with someone else in the Reading Group to act out that scene for the group. Let’s discuss those characters, the scene, and the dialogue. Why did you pick that particular scene and dialogue out from the novel?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
Eleanor & Park
Rainbow Rowell, 2013
St. Martin's Griffin
320 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250012579
Summary
Bono met his wife in high school, Park says.
So did Jerry Lee Lewis, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be, she says, we’re 16.
What about Romeo and Juliet?
Shallow, confused, then dead.
I love you, Park says.
Wherefore art thou, Eleanor answers.
I’m not kidding, he says.
You should be.
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try. When Eleanor meets Park, you’ll remember your own first love—and just how hard it pulled you under. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—ca. 1973-74
• Where—Omaha, Nebraska, USA
• Education—University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Currently—lives in Omaha
Rainbow Rowell is an American author of young adult and adult contemporary novels. Her first novel Attachments, published in 2011, is a contemporary romantic comedy about a company's IT guy who falls in love with a woman whose email he has been monitoring. Kirkus Reviews listed it as one of the outstanding debuts of 2011.
In 2013 Rowell published two young adult novels: Eleanor & Park and Fangirl. Both were chosen by the New York Times as being some of the best young adult fiction of the year. Eleanor & Park was also chosen by Amazon as one of the 10 best books of 2013, and as Goodreads' best young adult fiction of the year. DreamWorks and Carla Hacken are planning a movie, for which Rowell has been asked to write the screenplay.
Rowell completed the first draft of Fangirl for National Novel Writing Month in 2011. It was chosen as the inaugural selection for Tumblr's reblog book club. Landline, Rowell's fourth novel, a contemporary adult novel about a marriage in trouble, was released in 2014.
Controversy
Rowell's work also gained attention in 2013 when a parents' group at a Minnesota high school challenged Eleanor & Park, and Rowell herself was disinvited to a library event; however, a panel ultimately determined that the book could stay on library shelves. Rowell noted in an interview that the material that these parents were calling "profane" was what many kids in difficult situations realistically had to deal with, and that "when these people call Eleanor & Park an obscene story, I feel like they’re saying that rising above your situation isn’t possible."
The book has also come under fire from a multitude of social justice and Korean activist sources because of its fetishization of Korean bodies (particularly "feminine" masculinity), misunderstanding and misrepresentation of Asian diasporic and half-Asian experiences, and overt tones of white saviour complex. (From Wikipedia. Retrieved 7/14/2014.)
Visit the author's website.
Book Reviews
I have never seen anything quite like Eleanor & Park. Rainbow Rowell's first novel for young adults is a beautiful, haunting love story…Its observational precision and richness make for very special reading…Evocative sensual descriptions are everywhere in this novel, but they always feel true to the characters…Eleanor & Park reminded me not just what it's like to be young and in love with a girl, but also what it's like to be young and in love with a book.
John Green - New York Times Book Review
(Ages 13–up.) Half-Korean sophomore Park Sheridan is getting through high school by lying low.... Then new girl Eleanor gets on the bus.... Adult author Rowell (Attachments), making her YA debut, has a gift for showing what Eleanor and Park, who tell the story in alternating segments, like and admire about each other. Their love is believable and thrilling, but it isn’t simple.... Rowell keeps things surprising, and the solution—imperfect but believable—maintains the novel’s delicate balance of light and dark.
Publishers Weekly
(Grade 9-up.) In this novel set in the 1980s, teenagers Eleanor and Park are outsiders; Eleanor, because she's new to the neighborhood, and Park, because he's half Asian. Although initially wary of each other, they quickly bond over their love of comics and 1980s alternative music. Eleanor's home life is difficult...[and when her] stepfather's behavior grows even more menacing, Park assists in her escape.... Although the narrative points of view alternate between Eleanor and Park, the transitions are smooth. Crude language is realistic. Purchase for readers who are drawn to quirky love stories or 1980s pop culture. —Jennifer Schultz, Fauquier County Public Library, Warrenton, VA
Library Journal
(Age 14-up.) Awkward, prickly teens find deep first love in 1980s Omaha. Eleanor and Park don't meet cute; they meet vexed on the school bus, trapped into sitting together by a dearth of seats and their low social status.... Despite Eleanor's resolve not to grow attached to anything, and despite their shared hatred for clichés, they fall, by degrees, in love. Through Eleanor and Park's alternating voices, readers glimpse the swoon-inducing, often hilarious aspects of first love, as well as the contrast between Eleanor's survival of grim, abuse-plagued poverty and Park's own imperfect but loving family life. Funny, hopeful, foulmouthed, sexy and tear-jerking, this winning romance will captivate teen and adult readers alike.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Eleanor says she and Park are too young for true love. Do you believe that? Do you think Eleanor believes that?
2. How do Eleanor and Park's parents shape their outlook on relationships and the future?
3. Is Eleanor's mother a good mother? Why does she stay with Richie?
4. Why does Park's mother change her mind about Eleanor?
5. How is Park's relationship with his mother different from his relationship with his father? Who sees Park more clearly, his father or his mother?
6. Why is Park embarrassed by Eleanor? Is his embarrassment a betrayal?
7. Steve says that he's Park's friend—is he a true friend? Are Steve and Tina good guys or bad guys in the story? Do you think Eleanor and Tina could ever be friends?
8. How would Eleanor and Park's relationship be different in 2013? How would cell phones, digital music, and Internet access change their situation?
9. What is the importance of music in Park's life? And how is it different for Eleanor?
10. SPOILER ALERT. Was Eleanor right to run away? Should she have left her brothers and sister behind? Was there more she could have done to help them?
(Questions issued by publisher.)