Spring Trimester Reading Response Questions
Directions: Select one topic each week; topics cannot be used more than once. Write a full,
well-organized, one-page response. Make sure your responses are both complete and reflective.
Support your responses with examples.
TWO OF YOUR ESSAYS WILL BE READ ALOUD TO THE CLASS; THIS WILL BE
CONSIDERED THE “BOOK TALKS” FOR THE REST OF THIS TERM.
Be sure to list the following before you begin your essay:
Author’s last name, Author’s first name. Title of the Book. Place of Publication:
Publisher, Copyright Date. Number of Pages.
Copy the response question that you have elected to work on. (It is important to copy
the question precisely because this helps focus your response.)
Character
1. Write a diary entry for one of the characters in your book. Indicate the precise data and why
you chose that data for this entry. Explain how this entry fits into the life of your character.
2. Compare and contrast yourself with one of the characters.
3. What kind of friend would a make character make? Would he or she fit in with your group of
friends? Why or why not?
4. Write a letter to a character in the story offering your advice.
5. Write a letter from one character to another. And then explain how the letter fits into the story.
6. Discuss how the author creates an interesting character, or fails to do so.
7. What values does a particular character have? For example: honesty, courage, or a sense of
fair play. Use examples from the story to support your answer.
8. Interview a character in the story. No 'yes' or 'no' answers, please. Answers should reveal
feelings, issues, and personality.
9. Discuss how the strengths and weaknesses of a character are revealed in the story.
10. How did the central character change from beginning to the ending to the end of the story?
What did he or she learn?
11. If the book has a villain, how or why was his/her punishment justified?
12. Invite one character to dinner and write a note of explanation to your mother. Based on the
text tell your mother what she can expect from this guest by describing their likes and dislikes
but also indicating the kind of "person" your character is.
13. For a film for your book, which actor would you choose for the leading character? Why?
Your answer should reflect personality traits of your main character and include specific book
reference.
14. Describe what you think happened to the main character after the book ended. Explain how
your conclusion has roots in the main story.
15. Consider one of the minor characters in your story. Why do you think the author included
this character? Consider how the minor character helps develop plot, character, theme, or setting.
Setting
1. Could your story take place in a different setting? Explain why or why not. What about the
story requires it to remain in this setting or allows it to be moved? Remember that setting is both
time and place.
2. When and how does the author introduce setting? Quote several sentences from the book
which show setting.
3. Write a letter to the author discussing your thoughts about the setting -that is, what you liked
most and what you did not like-or suggest how the setting could be improved and why. Discuss
the technique the author uses to develop the setting.
4. Compare where you live with a neighborhood or town in your book. Make specific reference
to setting particulars in your book and compare them to actual places in your life.
5. Find several references to setting in your book and rewrite them to change the setting. Quote
the text which you propose to change. How will the new setting change the plot or characters?
Why?
Theme
1. Discuss your view about an issue in your book. For example: child abuse, meaningless
violence, drug abuse, divorce, dealing with death, cruelty to animals etc. When you express your
opinion, be sure to make specific reference to the text.
2. Identify a theme in your story and discuss how it relates to your own life. For example: how
hard work and tenacity has affected your school work and has created in you a person who others
respect and depend on.
3. Interview the author and discuss the theme. Try to reveal through your interview why your
author wrote about this theme.
4. What advice or message is the author trying to get across to the reader? Who would you give
this same advice to and why? In other words who should read this book and why?
5. Pretend you're the author and explain about your life and how this book fits into it and why
this theme is important to you.
6. Often a theme message is embedded in many layers of a book. Explain how the author
develops theme through the action, thoughts, statements and interactions of characters.
Plot
1. Rank the plot of your story from 1 to 10 and defend your opinion using details from the story.
(1= very poor, 10= excellent) A substantial argument will present three reasons for your opinion
with careful book reference.
2. Write about a time in your life when you experienced something similar to a situation in the
story. Describe the parallel between your experience and the book events.
3. Explain why the ending of the book was predictable and or unpredictable. Search the book for
clues and carefully reference them.
4.Write a different ending for the story. Explain why you would change the story's ending. Why
in your opinion is your ending superior to the story's ending?
5. Write a newspaper article about an event in your story. The lead sentence should cover the 5
W's of an effective news story. Include your byline and imitate the style of an actual news story.
See Write Source 2000 pp. 171 to 177
6. Describe the climax to your story. Explain how it is the turning point in the plot.
7. Write any kind of poem about your book. Select a style from Write Source 2000 pp. 230-234.
Explain why that style is appropriate for your book and explain the terms and special references
(with page numbers) you use in your poem so that the unfamiliar reader can appreciate the
complexity of your work.
8. A good book always poses dilemmas, difficulties, challenges, and problems to the main
character. What challenges did the main character face and how did he/she solve them?