Reader Response entries for The Schwa was Here
entries should be half a page, minimum
1. “Blog” on the topic of invisibility. What are some things that are invisible? Would you like to be invisible? What would you do if you were invisible?
2. What does it mean to be “invisible”? Have you ever felt invisible? When? Explain. If you haven’t felt invisible, tell the story of someone who you think might feel that way. “Walk around in their skin” as Atticus would say.
3. On page 3, Antsy says, “…Somehow that got changed to Antsy when I was little, and they’ve called me Antsy ever since. It don’t bother me no more. Used to, but, y’know, you grow into your name.” How important are names? Do people seem to “grow into” names as Antsy, or do they try to live them down? Explain. How might names lead to stereotypes?
4. What is your “place” in the family? Do you have a role? Do you like it or resent it? Explain.
5. How do we choose our friends? Does your circle of friends have roles? What role do you have with your social circle? Elaborate.
6. What does your word mean? When you make a promise, do you follow through with it? Why or why not?
7. Is it easy to be “the new kid”? Why or why not? Are new kids invisible, or is it impossible, as Antsy says, for new kids to enter a school unnoticed?
8. Antsy says, “I don’t do well with unnatural things” (20). Explain what this means. Do YOU do well with “unnatural things”? Why or why not? Explain. Discuss how we fear and hate that which we do not understand.
9. On page 75, Antsy says, “I was thinking about bamboo. Last year, my science teacher said that when a bamboo plant is established enough, you can actually watch it growing before your eyes. I wondered if it was sometimes the same with humans – because I was feeling this weird vertigo, like I had suddenly sprouted far beyond Howie and Ira.” Has this ever happened to you? Felt like you’d “outgrown” friends? Elaborate.
10. Girls and boys cannot be friends because “relationships” always get in the way. Agree or disagree? Explain your answer. Is “three a crowd”?
11. What does green smell like? Can we taste yellow? Imagine you are explaining colors to a blind-from-birth person. Describe the following colors to that person:
red, blue, brown, white, orange, pink, green, yellow
12. On page 108, Antsy’s dad says, “The biggest things always seem like small things” as a kind of explanation for why he and Antsy’s mom have had “the Big One.” What do you think he meant? Do you agree with him? Why or why not?
13. Respond to the following quote: “Parents were supposed to know the answers, and even if they didn’t, they could usually fake it really well. I wanted to hate my dad for not knowing, but I couldn’t hate him. That made me want to hate him even more” (109).
14. “Being with her made me feel like Anthony instead of Antsy” (141). Explain this quote. Have you ever felt this way? Explain.
15. On page 150, Antsy says that he can’t “imagine what it would be like to sit in a shopping cart, alone in a crowd of people…” Have you ever felt alone in a crowd of people? What does this mean? Explain your answers.
16. “The Weird Things Kids Do Don’t Even Come Close to the Weird Things Parents Do” (Chapter 20 title). Respond.
17. Which is worse, the friend who keeps the truth secret, or the friend who spills the beans? (201) Explain your answer thoroughly.