Discussion Questions for January 30

Discussion Questions: “Poetry” and A Maze Me

Small Group Work

1.     Hintz and Tribunella state that one of the functions of children’s poetry is “to help children explore emotions and ideas” (88). How does A Maze Me engage the following themes? Identify at least one poem that addresses your assigned theme.

a.     Aging, from the perspective of a child

b.     Childhood, from the perspective of an adult

c.     Attraction and romance

d.     Friendship

e.     Self-knowledge and self-worth

f.      Family and home life

g.     Public life (i.e. life outside the home)

h.     War and peace

i.       Nature (including animals)

Class Discussion about A Maze Me

1.     Let’s look at Naomi Shihab Nye’s introduction to A Maze Me. How does Nye define childhood? Adulthood? Do you find the introduction to be didactic?

2.     Hintz and Tribunella state that lyric poems “capture a moment in time,” while narrative poems “tell stories” (109). Do you think the poems in A Maze Me qualify more as lyric poems or narrative ones? What examples stand out?

3.     Hintz and Tribunella also state that the diction (word choice) of a poem impacts its meaning (110). How would you characterize the tone of Nye’s diction? How does this influence the narrative distance between the speaker and the reader?

4.     How does Nye use figurative language “to create powerful images” and “to help the reader see things in a new and startling way” (Hintz and Tribunella 110)? Find specific examples. What makes these so effective?

5.     Overall, do you think the text paints a positive or negative portrait of adulthood?

6.     What role do the illustrations play in the text?

7.     The subtitle of the text is “Poems for Girls.” To what extent do you agree that these are “poems for girls”? What does this reveal about contemporary constructions of gender?

Class Discussion about Children’s Poetry in General

1.     What poetry did you read—or have read to you—as a child? Did you enjoy it? Why or why not?

2.     In what ways can children benefit from nonsense poetry? 

3.     Consider Livingston’s claim that children have a “right” to their “poetic inheritance,” including works that might be considered difficult or inappropriate by adults (Hintz and Tribunella 108). Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Discussion Questions for January 23

Discussion Questions: Anne of Green Gables

Reflection

1.     Did you find the end of Anne satisfying? Why or why not? What moral(s), if any, did you see the book as promoting?

Class Discussion

1.     How do the illustrations impact your reading of the text?

2.     Perry Nodelman provides a lengthy list of criteria that define children’s literature (Hintz and Tribunella 53). How does Anne fit these criteria? How does it resist them? Would you add or subtract any criteria from Nodelman’s list? The criteria:

a.     The implication of children as readers

b.     The use of a simple style

c.     The focus on action rather than description

d.     The use of apparent simplicity to mask hidden complexities

e.     A matter-of-fact tone despite the strangeness of the events described

f.      Focalization through a child’s perspective and the use of child protagonists

g.     A doubleness of perspective created by the differences between the perspective of child characters and the voice of a presumably adult third-person narrator

h.     The focus on innocence and knowledge acquisition as central subjects

i.       A pervasive sense of nostalgic and ambivalence

j.       The importance of home and leaving home

3.     In what ways does the text frame “scope of imagination,” as Anne calls it, as a uniquely juvenile ability? In what ways is this idea detached from childhood?

4.     In this section, Montgomery emphasizes some of the differences between Anne’s socioeconomic status and that of the other girls at Queen’s. What is the significance of these discrepancies?

5.     In what ways is Anne similar to fairy tales starring young women? In what ways is it different?

6.     Anne reacts to city life differently than some of her peers. What does this reaction say about her character?

7.     How do Anne’s perceptions of romance evolve over the course of the novel?

8.     In the final section of the book, we get several insights into Anne’s views of the future. How do these relate to ideas about the role of childhood in the scope of a full human life? (In other words, how do young adults, adults, and older adults interact differently with ideas about the future?)

9.     From Arthur Pober’s questions (300): How is Anne like Marilla?