12. Television is used as a backdrop during the dramatic scene when the reader learns that Mo is not coming home. What is the effect of the background noise?
13. The death of Katie’s father is significant and sets off a series of changes, most notably in Katie’s relationship with her mother. How and why do these changes take place, and how is what happens between Katie and her mother similar to or different from what happens between Misty and Sally Jean?
14. Whispering Pines Cemetery serves as an important backdrop in Ferris Beach. Discuss the many ways the characters in the novel are haunted.
JILL MCCORKLE is the author of nine books—five of which have been selected as New York Times Notable Books. She is the winner of the New England Book Award, the John Dos Passos Prize for Excellence in Literature, and the North Carolina Award for Literature. Now a professor of writing at North Carolina State University, McCorkle has also taught at Bennington College, Harvard University, and the University of North Carolina. She lives with her husband in Hillsborough, North Carolina.
Table of Contents
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-one
Twenty-two
Twenty-three
Twenty-four
Twenty-five
Twenty-six
Twenty-seven
Twenty-eight
What to Wear on the First Day at Lumberton High . . .
Reading Group Guide
Ferris Beach Page 36