Characters
1. How do the characters change in the story?
2. Are any of the characters like others you have met in
other books? Which ones? Why?
Setting
3. How does the author create the atmosphere for the setting?
4. Do you like a place in the book? Where is it? Describe it.
5. If the story took place somewhere else or in a different
time how would it be changed?
Plot
6. What other ways might the story have ended?
7. What does the author do to create suspense, to make you
want to read on to find out what happens?
8. What clues did the author offer to prepare you to expect
the ending? Did you recognize these clues as important to
the story as you were first reading it?
9. Every writer creates a make believe work and peoples it
with characters. Even where the world is far different
from your own, how does the author make the story seem
possible or probable?
Theme
10. Is there a theme to the story? What? How do you know?
Personal Reactions
11. There anything else that makes this author's perspective
or style unique? What?
12. How does the author keep you interested in the story?
13. Does anything in the book remind you of something from
your own experience, or from a novel, or TV program, a
song or something else you have read. Talk about that
relationship.
Reader’s Response Ideas:
I noticed. . .
I think. . .
If I were. . .
I don’t understand. . .
I wonder. . .
I was surprised. . .
I began to think of. . .
It seems like. . .
I’m not sure. . .
I predict. . .
I like the way. . .
This story teaches. . .
The author. . .
The character _______ . . .
The big idea or theme may be. . .
The problem in the story is. . .
Rising action I see is. . .
Words I like. . .
Author’s technique I like. . .
Words to look up. . .
This reminds me of the time. . .
