Golden Sower

1. If you were to write a newspaper article to end this book, how would it read?

2. Losing loved ones is a difficult life lesson. What do you think helped House deal with the loss of his mother and Mr. Boyd?

3. Trusting a friend with a secret/s is another difficult life lesson. If you were House, How would you have handled Cleebo's sharing of a secret?

4. Why do the boys on the baseball team treat Frances and House so differently. Describe the differences and possilble similarities.

5. Why did Frances change her name? If you could change your name what would you change it to? and why?

6. What does House's "rag of an arm and a worn-out heart." mean?

We are searching for some great blog questions, but right now it is just too deep and dark and dangerous to reveal them. Check back soon.


1. What chapter is the scariest to you? (Question by Alyna from Dodge)

2. What captured your attention the most in this book? (Airiana from Dodge)

1. How are Sam, Mack, Onji, and Anima a family?

2. Why does Sam feel that he must choose a girl to help him read the newspaper article in the attic? What is it about Caroline that makes Sam choose her?

3. Why doesn't Sam want to ask Mack about the newspaper article and the other items in the locked box?

4. Why does Mack want Sam to take the castle to school?

5. By the end of the novel, Sam seems to have discovered the value of reading. How would the story have been different if Sam had been a better reader?

1. Which character of the four do you believe you are most like? Identify and describe the similarities.

2. Why do you believe that the island was a perfect place to have L.I.V.E.?

3. There were times when the children didn't know who to trust. What do you think helped them trust Mr. Benedict?

4. The children had to work together as a team to survive. Select one episode from the book and describe how they worked together to get through something.

5. If you were to re-write Mr. Benedict's advertisement from the paper, what would you put to interest other children?

6. Sometimes people don't understand one another. What was different about the four students that not all students could relate to? Describe the differences or similarities.

1. Have you ever felt competitive with someone you are close to, like a brother or sister, or a friend? Describe the situation. How did you feel? What was the outcome of the situation?

2. Jessie and Evan keep their fighting and lemonade stand competition against each from their mom. Has there been a time that you had a problem that you did not want your parents to know about? How did you resolve your problem? Do you think it was a good choice for Jessie and Evan to not get their mom involved?

3. Can you explain why Jessie and Evan kept their quarreling away from their mother?

4. Evan was really sure that Scott Spencer stole the lemonade money he "borrowed" from Jessie. Why doesn't Evan confront Scott about the money? Why doesn't he ask for his money back?

5. Have you ever done something out of anger to someone and then later wish that you hadn't? How did you make amends?

6. Jacqueline Davies chose to create Jessie and Evan with traits that seem to go against what people commonly associate in girls and boys. For instance, people think that girls are intutitive and good at reading people's feelings while boys are not and are more inclined to be good at academics like math. In the book, these traits are reversed--Jessie is good at math and Evan is good with talking and interacting with people. Do these stereotypes get in the way in friendships or relationships at your school?

7. At the end of the story, the confiict between Jessie and Evan is resolved. How is it resolved? Do you agree with how the siblings fixed their sibling rivalry?

8. Do you think Jacqueline Davies should write a sequel to the story since Jessie will be in Evan's fourth grade class? What would the story be about? Create a title for this hypothetical sequel.

1. Mr. White, the science teacher never investigated into why her parent's weren't answering his messages. What should he have done?

2. When they stayed in the house the first night, Georgina thought no one else was worse off than her. What should her mother have told her to comfort her?

3. What else would you have liked the author to tell you about Mookie? What rolde did Mookie serve in the story?

4. Sometimes we can't change the outcome. Why is this an important lesson to learn for kids?

5. Morally it would be wrong to take a dog. What things led Georgina to believe that there was nothing else that she could do?

6. Homelessness is a part of our society. What could you do to improve this?

7. Did Luanne have a responsibility that she did not take care of for being a friend?

1. Why do you think the author chose this title for the book?

2. Paris and Malcom are very close. Describe their relationship and why you think they have this close bond. How does their separation affect them?

3. Explain what Paris means when she says to "Keep God in your pocket."

4. Paris had a difficult time thinking of the Lincoln house as home. What could a family do to make a foster child like they are "at home?"

5. Ashley and Paris become best friends at Claremont Elementary. What happens to their relationship and why? Describe how you would feel if you were either Paris or Ashley?

1. Brenton believes homework is time consuming and that he could be doing something more constructive and important. What are your thoughts on his view?

2. Kelsey dyes her hair pink. Judy says she doesn't want people to judge her on her skin color so she shouldn't judge Kelsey on her hair color. What do you think about judging someone on their appearance?

3. Do you think it was fair to use the homework machine? Why? Would you have used it? Why/why not?

4. Miss Rasmussen decides to give the class a surprise test. Discuss the fairness of this and give your opinion on her decision.

5. Brenton says it was not morally wrong for him to use the computer (Belch) for his homework, but it was for Kelsey and Sam because they used it as a crutch? Do you agree or disagree? Explain.

6. Discuss the positive and negative outcomes that occured from Kelsey, Brenton, Sam and Judy's decision to use Belch.

7. Brenton had the ability to create the software program that gave him the "power" to send out the message to almost every kid in America to wear red socks and their clothes backward to school. He stated you could consider it a virus because he let it loose all over the internet and people passed it around. What are your thoughts about this "virus?" Do you think Brenton should have done that? Why/why not?

8. Brenton thinks that chess should be used to decide the outcome of a war instead of countries actually going to the war. Explain the positives and negatives of each situation. Which do you think is the better solution?

9. What is your opinion of Sam's comment: "Coolness doesn't come from having cool stuff or hanging with cool people. It's not cool to try to be cool. It's cool to not try to be cool." Do you think it's possible for someone to be so uncool that they become cool?