Blog Response Questions and Prompts

Here is a list of prompts and questions I've gathered from around the internet.  These questions should help you develop a thesis or main point of exploration for each response and avoid mere plot summary.  Great responses make connections between texts, explore relationships between the self and the book, and/or make connections between the text and the outside world.
 
Character

• Do the characters seem real and believable? Can you relate to their predicaments? To what extent do they remind you of yourself or someone you know?
• How do characters change or evolve throughout the course of the story? What events trigger such changes?
• Do one or more of the characters tell the story? If so, how do their own circumstances color the telling? Do you empathize with the characters? Are their voices genuine, are they believable? For example does a child narrator sound the age he/she should be? Does the voice of a character set in a particular place or time ring true? Are the characters or their circumstances familiar to you?
• Do the characters react the way you think you would in a similar situation? Do you find their actions troubling? Are their actions consistent with their characters? If not, perhaps ask yourself if it is reasonable for anyone to be expected to act consistently in character!
  
• Do the character's experiences cause them to grow? If so, how?
• If you could change the life or lives of a story character, to make their lives more like the lives of the characters in the book or story you are reading, whose lives would you change? How would you change their lives? Why did you pick these people or that person?
• Sometimes we are pulled toward one or two characters in the story. We identify with them or feel sympathy for them. With which characters do you identify in the book, and why do you believe you identify with them?
• If you could ask any character a question, what would you ask? If you could ask the author a question, what might that be? Explain why you chose these questions.
• How realistic was the characterization? Would you want to meet any of the characters? Did you like them? Hate them?
• Did the actions of the characters seem plausible? Why? Why not?
• Think about the main character.  What seems to be his or her motivation?  (Feel free to explore a minor character instead.)
• For an important character, choose a theme song that seems to fit their way of living.  Fully explain why that song fits that character.
• Create a “conversation across time” by having one of the characters in the text dialogue with a fictional or nonfiction persona from another time period/century.

Setting

• What was unique about the setting of the book and how did it enhance or take away from the story?
• What time period is the novel set in? If it's set in a previous time period, is this a period you know anything about? Would you have liked to live in this period? What would be the advantages/disadvantages? If set in the future - do you think it's a credible view of the future? Is it one that you'd wish on future generations? If it's set in the current time, what current events, if any, color the story?
• When was the book written?  If it's written recently, do you think it will date well or badly - will people still be reading it in 10 years, 50 years, a hundred years? If it was written sometime ago - does it feel like it's a product of its time? Is it a book that could be written now? If not, why not? What does it say about people's values at the time? Have they changed?
• Where does it take place?  Do the location and environment of the book color the telling of the story or are they merely a backdrop? Does the location change during the book or stay the same? If it changes, does this have any effect on the central characters?
• If you could change the setting in this story to another setting, what setting would you choose? Would you change just the time period? Or would you change the place, the season, the actual environment-one of poverty, riches, or middle class America? Why would you make those changes?
• How does the setting figure into the book? Is the setting a character? Does it come to life? Did you feel you were experiencing the time and place in which the book was set?

Conflict

• Now that you are this far into the story, what do you look forward to learning next? What conflicts or problems do you think the characters will face? What qualities of your character (honest, loyal, cruel, dishonest, angry, vengeful) will affect how the character handles the problems and conflicts he or she encounters?
• What about the plot? Did it pull you in; or did you feel you had to force yourself to read the book?  Why?
• If one (or more) of the characters made a choice that had moral implications, would you have made the same decision? Why? Why not?

Point of View

• Is it written in the first person, third person, or perhaps the second person, or perhaps a combination? Is the story told from one point of view or many?
• Is there anything noteworthy about the point of view?  Can you rely on the narrator's retelling, or might it be biased?
  

Theme

• What specific themes did the author emphasize throughout the novel? What do you think he or she is trying to get across to the reader?
• In what ways do the events in the books reveal evidence of the author's world view?
• Does the book have a central theme? If so what? Does it have many themes? If so how do they interlink? Is one theme more dominant than others? Do the themes blend naturally with the storyline or do you feel the author is using his/her characters to labor a particular point?
• Did the author seem to appear in the book? How? Why? Was the presence of the author disruptive? Or did it seem appropriate/fitting?

Style

• What genre is it? Is this a genre that you're familiar with? Does the book 'break the mold' in anyway.

Symbolism

• How are the book's images symbolically significant? Do the images help to develop the plot, or help to define characters?

Personal Response/Reactions

• Did certain parts of the book make you uncomfortable? If so, why did you feel that way? Did this lead to a new understanding or awareness of some aspect of your life you might not have thought about before?
• In your recent reading, did the setting or any of the characters remind you of people or characters in your own personal life? We any of the situations or events similar to your own life? How were they alike and how were they different?
• If you were to put this story into your own life, in the area where you live, around the people and friends that you know, how would the story have to change? How would the people change? Would the setting have to change? Why would these changes have to take place?
• As you read today, what surprised you? Explain how this will affect the story or how it changed your thinking about the story.
• Are you puzzled or confused about anything in the story? What is it that confuses you, and why do you find it confusing?
• It is not unusual to wish that our lives were more like the lives of characters in stories. How would you change your own real life to be more like the world of your story?
• How does this book relate to your life?
  

Intertextuality

• Does this story or its characters remind you of another story you have read? Does it remind you of a movie? How are they alike? And how are they different?
• What do you know about the author? Is the book autobiographical, has the author brought his/her own experience to the book, is it similar to other books the author has written, is it similar in style to other books by the author, and does the author show any growth/change in style between the books etc.
• Contrast this book with others you have read, for example, books by the same author, with a similar theme, or set in the same time period. However, be careful to stay focused on the book in hand otherwise the majority of members may find themselves out of the loop listening to two members discussing the relative merits of books that the rest haven't read!

On the word level...

• Sometimes when we read, certain words or phrases or images stand out. Maybe they are words or phrases that make an impression because of their sound, or maybe the meaning or image they make strikes us? Sometimes we find words or expressions we just do not understand. Share those that you have come across and describe why you listed them.
• React, respond and explicate a “five star quote” of your choice.  A “five star quote” is a quote that “jumps off the page” at you for any number of reasons.  It may be aphoristic, profound, humorous, universal, or any reason you choose.  For clarity, you must include the entire quote somewhere in the entry.

Once you're done...

• What did you like or dislike?  Did you like the book or not? Did you enjoy it? Is it possible to find a book interesting without 'enjoying' it? If you didn't enjoy it what sort of person do you think would? Do you think you might have enjoyed it more or less if you'd read it when you were younger or perhaps waited to read it when you were older? Did you have expectations of it? If so did it live up to them? Had you read reviews before reading it? If so, do you find yourself agreeing with the 'official' reviewers or not? Do you think the book jacket synopsis and jacket illustration do a good job of indicating the type of book it it? Would you give it as a gift? If so, who would you give it to? Can you see yourself reading it again? Is this book a 'keeper' - if you had to halve the size of your book collection would this be one of the books that stayed or went?
• How did the book affect you?  Do you feel 'changed' in anyway? Did it expand your range of experience or challenge your assumptions (for example did it take you to a place you haven't been before or help you see a place you know in a different light). Did reading it help you to understand a person better - perhaps a friend or relative, or even yourself?
• Project into the future  What do you think will happen to the characters next? Does the author plan a sequel?
• Did you feel that the book fulfilled your expectations? Were you disappointed?
• Fully examine and explain a particular piece of the writer’s craft; you may want to consider any one of the following and explain how it underscores one of the motifs or themes of the book:  metaphor, foreshadowing, symbolism, characterization, structure, hyperbole, imagery, diction, voice, etc.