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. As of 2021, there are over 391,000 children and young adults in the foster care system in the US. While only 18-22% of the general population is estimated to have mental health disorders, up to 80% of children in foster care have significant mental health disorders. Why do you think this is so? What do you know about the foster care system that might explain this statistic?

Teaching Suggestion: A basic understanding of the foster care system in the US (and how it relates to but is distinct from the US adoption system) will be helpful background before beginning this nonfiction work. Students may have a sense of the foster care system’s weaknesses and challenges; with this discussion, it may be helpful to introduce the theme The Ephemerality of Happiness and Comfort for Children in Foster Care. As students in the class may know individuals who have had experiences with the foster care system or may have experiences with foster care themselves, it may be helpful to review the Child Placement Agency’s recommendations on how to have sensitive, open discussions in the classrooms on matters involving foster care in “What School Staff Should Know About Foster Care.”

• The American Association of Pediatrics discusses mental and behavioral health as the largest unmet need for children in foster care in “Mental and Behavioral Health Needs of Children in Foster Care.”
• The Annie E. Casey Foundation gives an overview of the foster care system in “Foster Care Explained: What It Is, How It Works, and How It Can Be Improved.”
• The CPTSD Foundation’s “The Long-Term Effects of Abandonment” discusses the wide-ranging consequences of growing up after abandonment and may help in providing language and information for teacher-led discussion. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing)

2. The story of a person’s life can be told in first-person accounts such as memoir and autobiography. How does the perspective of these genres typically impact the reading experience? Consider elements such as voice, tone, style, and authenticity in your response.

Teaching Suggestion: Autobiography is a first-person account typically told in a straightforward, chronological order and encompasses the person’s factual life history. Memoir is told as a first-person account of the author’s life experiences typically structured around memory, theme, or other narrative elements the author chooses. In this way, memoir offers more authorial control over the telling of one’s own story. Some autobiographical texts include strong elements of memoir. Information from these or similar resources can help students develop additional context on the topic.

• Writer’s Digest’s “Defining Creative Nonfiction, Narrative Nonfiction, Memoir, Autobiography, and Biography” provides some helpful definitions of these genres.
• Grammarly offers examples of memoirs and autobiographies in this brief article to help distinguish between the two forms.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students interested in the writing process might discuss or free write on the efficacy of an author telling their personal story through a novel as opposed to a nonfiction first-person account. Why might an author choose to do this? LitHub’s “On Deciding to Tell My Story in a Novel Instead of a Memoir” may be a useful resource before discussion.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Consider the saying “Home is where the heart is.” What is meant by this adage, and why do you think it has become a cliché? In your response, reflect upon some places that you might consider “home” because your “heart” is there, and not necessarily because it is where you reside.

Teaching Suggestion: In this discussion, it may be beneficial to draw attention to the wide range of locales that feel like “home” to students. Students may offer up a variety of places that they feel is their “home,” from school to their churches to the homes of friends or relatives. This prompt connects to the book’s theme of “Home” Is Relative. Due to the sensitive nature of the question, a private, individual response may work best; also, students might use literary or film characters as examples in discussing these questions if they prefer to refrain from personal sharing.

Differentiation Suggestion: For advanced learners or those who would benefit from an approach based in written expression, students might look to poetry to deepen and add further dimension to the concept of “home.” In “Poems about the Home,” Poets.org discusses how “home” is a subject that poets have grappled with in many ways—it can be a real or imagined place, a childhood memory, or something else entirely. Students might read through 3-4 of the poems listed throughout this article, then discuss the ways in which these poets define “home.” Is “home” more a place or a feeling for these authors? Is it both?