Did you find any of the characters in the novel unsympathetic? Which ones, and why?
What are Sherry’s reasons for going to college? What do you think of them?
Why or why not did you find this novel realistic?
Shannon has to choose between Sherry and David Kulka—what do you think of her choice? Why do you suppose she chooses the way she does?
Do you think Henry Bruce knows that Shannon is pretending to be someone she isn’t when he first interviews her for the waitressing job?
How are Shannon’s experiences in high school in Mary’s Creek typical or not?
Further Reading: Realistic Teen Fiction
By Nancy Pearl
Laurie Halse Anderson, Speak
Judy Blume, Forever
Beverly Cleary, The Luckiest Girl
Maureen Daly, Seventeenth Summer
Sarah Dessen, Along for the Ride
John Green, The Fault in Our Stars
Daniel Handler, Why We Broke Up
E. Lockhart, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks
Carolyn Mackler, The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things
Rainbow Rowell, Eleanor & Park
Mary Stolz, In a Mirror
Greensleeves Page 31