The Worst Thing She Ever Did by Alice Kuipers

The Worst Thing She Ever Did

Sophie wonders whether her life will ever be normal again. A horrific accident resulting in the death of her sister has left her mired in grief and guilt. She is truly sick of people asking her if she is ok. Sophie is determined to forget, but soon learns that forgetting is not a healthy way of coping and strives to get her life back on track.

Discussion questions:

• The question of character development shows prominently in this book from Sophie's growth as a person, right down to her relationship with her mom and with Rosa Leigh. Did you find this author developed and "fleshed" out the characters in this book and how they related to each other? Did you find that Sophie lacked the emotional turmoil when it was revealed how her sister died? Was her reaction typical of say, how you would have reacted?


• A great majority of the angst in this book came when Sophie and her mom interacted. Why was Sophie so angry with her mom? They both suffered a loss, so why all the hostility? Was there something to be learned from this?

Swim The Fly by Don Calame

Swim The Fly Matt Gratton and his friends Coop and Sean have an annual summer project. This year's goal is to see a "real live girl, naked". In addition, Matt has committed himself to "swim the fly" for the swim team in an attempt to impress Kelly, the new "hottie" on the school's swim team. This book has been described as a laugh-out loud story about love, friendship, humour and hormones. What can be said about "Swim the Fly", the only book in the White Pine Reads this year that doesn't deal with depressing issues? It is a fun, light-as air read. Discussion Questions:

• Did this book work for you, did you find Matt a character that you could understand or did you find it too light and not believable at all? Fart jokes aside, that is!


• I was not surprised to find out that the author has a long standing career as a movie screenwriter and felt that this book could make a fun summer movie with Michael Cera playing the part of Matt. Did this book leave you with the same impression?