Sold on a Monday

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. Have you ever faced a situation where professional advancement tempted you to compromise your values? What did you decide to do, and why?

2. Lily keeps her son Samuel a secret for fear of societal judgment. Describe a time when you felt the need to hide an important aspect of your identity or life from others.

3. Reflect on a time when a seemingly small choice you made had significant ripple effects in your life or the lives of others.

4. To what extent does Ellis’s struggle for his father’s approval throughout the novel parallel relationships in your own life?

5. What difficult decisions have you made for someone you love, believing it was in their best interest?

6. Ellis tells Lily that her prayers were already answered when she felt Samuel kick—she could “choose life over guilt” (215). Consider the sources of guilt in your own life. What has helped you move forward from these feelings?

Examine the book’s relevance to societal issues, historical events, or cultural themes.

1. What parallels do you see between the economic hardships portrayed in the novel and challenges families face in today’s society?

2. The novel depicts rigid gender roles of the 1930s through characters like Lily and Ellis. Where do you observe both progress and remaining challenges in gender expectations today?

3. Consider the treatment of unwed mothers like Lily in the novel. What changes in societal attitudes toward non-traditional families represent the most significant progress since the Depression era?

Dive into the book’s structure, characters, themes, and symbolism.

1. What insights does the dual first-person narration provide that a single narrator might not have captured?

2. Analyze the significance of Ellis’s Model T car as a symbol throughout his character’s journey.

3. Track the evolving symbolism of the photograph of children for sale throughout the novel.

4. The novel presents several different portraits of family throughout the narrative. What contrasting approaches to family do the Reeds, the Palmers, the Millstones, and the Dillards represent?

5. Grief appears as a powerful motivator for several characters in the novel. What patterns emerge in how different characters process their grief?

6. Which symbolic element in the novel affected you most powerfully?