E2: Briar Rose (Home and Traveling)

Chapters 1-3

• Does the relationship between the there sisters (Shana, Sylvia, and Rebecca_ seem significantly different between their childhood (1, 3) and their adulthood (2)? Support and explain.
• How are Shana and Sylvia like the “pretty, young fairies” in Granny O’Grimm? Support and explain.
• Why does Rebecca stay after her sisters leave (2)? Support and explain.
• What does the “bad fairy’s uniform” represent in Gemma’s story (3)? Support and explain.

Chapters 4-6

• Each of the sisters handle Gemma’s funeral differently—which sister’s form of grief can you most relate to (dark humor, anger, business)? Support and explain.
• Does Dawna Prinz seem like a real Polish name or a made-up name? Support and explain.
• How does Becca telling her nieces and nephews “Gemma’s story” connect the family? Are there any stories in your family that are passed down like that? Explain.
• Why is Gemma’s box important? What does it show us about who Gemma was as a person? Support and explain.
• Write a brief character sketch (two-sentence summary) for Shana, Sylvia, and Gemma.
• Why does Becca’s friend get so upset over Gemma’s version of Sleeping Beauty (5)? Support and explain.
• Briefly discuss a story where you know a different version from other people.
• Why would someone turn their life (or events from their life) into a fairy tale or slightly untrue story (6)? Support and explain.
• What does Becca hope to accomplish by rearranging and organizing the contents of Gemma’s box? Support and explain.

Chapters 7-9

• What kind of a mist could Gemma be describing? Think about WWI and WWII specifically.
• pg 46—based on how the word is used, what does inviolate mean? Support and explain.
• “Her mother had kept her promise; the four piles were as Becca had left them, inviolate.”
• Why does Becca go into work? Is she running to something or from something? Support and explain.
• What is Becca’s first real lead? Where do you think it will take her? Support and explain.
• In Gemma’s story, what do the barbed hedges represent? Support and explain.

Chapters 10-12

• What was Fort Oswego? Do you think there were really places like this? Support and explain.
• Why do you think Gemma had so many names and so many secrets? Support and explain.
• Do you think it saddened Gemma when the three girls started to grow too old for a story they had heard so many times? Support and explain.
• Why is Stan so interested in helping Becca? Support and explain.
• How do Sam and Linn help? Why do you think they help? Support and explain.
• How were the refugees treated? How is this similar to/different from how the Japanese-Americans were treated on the West Coast? Support and explain.
• On page 83, Harvey talks about how strange memories are—how does this explain something about Gemma and her story? Support and explain.
• Use your resources to look up the term “coffin ship”. Briefly explain what they were and how they connect to Fort Oswego and its refugees.

Chapters 13-15

• In Gemma’s story, why do peasants just know things? Why do they lack courage? Support and explain.
• What is important about Gemma’s lack of a number? What does it tell us about her wartime experience? Support and explain.
• What is Kulmhof? Support and explain.
• Who are “the kidnappers”? Support and explain.

Chapters 16-18

• What do you think family meant to Gemma? Support and explain.
• What does Stan mean when he quotes The Tempest, “What’s past is prologue”, to Becca? Support and explain.
• What is Stan saying to Becca when he makes his “that depends on whether you are Rumplestiltskin or the Queen”? Support and explain.
• Why is Becca’s family so worried about her trip? Support and explain.
• According to Gemma, why is each person’s story important? Support and explain.
• What does her passport mean to Becca? What did not having one mean to Gemma? How are those feelings connected?