Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Blue Heaven:
1. What kind of people live in Kootenai Bay—what kind of community is it? How has the area been changing over the past several years? How has it earned its epithet, "Blue Heaven," and what about that nickname is ironic in the course of the novel?
2. What prompts Annie and William to set off on their own to go fishing? In what way do they feel let down by the adult world?
3. What kind of child is Annie? What character traits do we see from the onset that will help her survive the events that follow?
4. Annie and William find protection with Jess Rawlins. But Rawlins doesn't believe the children's story at first. What eventually convinces him?
5. In what way is Rawlins an unlikely hero? Some see him as a throwback to the iconic heroes of the old-West myth. Do you agree? If you're a Western novel buff, what other fictional heroes is he similar to?
6. The criminals keep Monica Taylor away from the media and the phone. Is she overly passive, too easily manipulated? Or are retired cops simply too cunning to resist?
6. Why is Eduardo Villatoro's obsessed with the Santa Anna Racetrack robbery, and what brings him to northern Idaho?
7. What motivates the banker to join forces with Rawlins and the children?
8. Are you satisfied with how the novel ends? Do the retired policement get what they deserve ... or not?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online of off, with attribution. Thanks.)
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