Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What ideas, images, events come to mind when you hear the phrase “school shooting”?

Teaching Suggestion: The novel introduces a sensitive and potentially polarizing topic. Students in the contemporary US grow up all too aware of the vulnerability of schools and the possibility of such an attack. The book does not actually detail the shooting, nor do we learn anything about the two shooters. The most graphic moment comes when Josh describes Devon’s chest injury. Author Kathryn Erskine lives just a few miles from the Virginia Tech campus, and its mass shooting in 2007 was central in her early commitment to the book. These shootings can be adult themes, but the topic is now part of school curricula. Before meeting Caitlin, students can be prepared for the reality of the novel and its commitment not to dwell on the killings but rather on the ways that families, schools, and communities handle such tragedies. This prompt connects to the themes of The Dynamics of Grief, The Need for Closure, and The End of Innocence.