Reader's Guide Questions for In Leah's Wake
- Can teenagers change overnight from brilliant students
who are on the fast-track for successful futures to out-of-control outcasts?
- Can the latest technologies
(tracking devices on cell phones, drug tests, and so forth) really keep
kids safer?
- To what degree are parents responsible for their teenagers’ lives and
choices?
- Will living in the best communities with the best school systems
ensure that your children have the perfect lives?
- Can the loving actions of
overachieving parents actually backfire and cause their children to rebel?
- What
role does the community play in shepherding teens through their adolescence?
- How
would you describe the fictional Tyler family?
- What goes wrong in Leah’s life
– what launches her on the path to self-destruction?
- How has the goal of “perfect” parenting affected today’s kids? Is there
such a thing as a perfect child?
- How do kids whose lives have been micromanaged
fare in college? Later in life?
- Is there anything her parents should have
done to prevent Leah from making the wrong choices? Are there any warning
signs they should have seen?
- When you
run across a real-life ”Leah,” to what extent do you hold the parents responsible?
- What
role does Justine play in the story? How is her life affected by her sister’s
choices?
- In Leah’s Wake is an extreme example of how a teenager can transform
herself from a perfect child into a troubled adolescent. How typical do
you think her character really is?
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