One Book, One San Diego 2010

• Welcome
• About the Book and Author
• Events
• Additional Resources
• Discussion Toolkit
• Discussion Guide and Questions
• Book Group Kit FAQ

Discussion Guides

Reading Guide prepared by the San Diego Public Library

There are many ways to begin a book discussion in your own home, workplace, neighborhood bookstore or coffee shop, public library, church, etc. The idea behind One Book, One San Diego is to have all citizens in the San Diego area reading the same book at the same time, creating a kind of citywide book club and sense of community.

The first step in conducting a book discussion is to visit any of the 35 San Diego Public Library locations, bookstores or the One Book, One San Diego web sites at www.sandiegolibrary.org or www.kpbs.org/onebook and download the resource guide. The resource guide will include discussion questions as well as a biography of the author.

After obtaining a resource guide, pick a date to gather a group of friends, relatives or co-workers to discuss the book. Having trouble gathering a group together? No problem: The San Diego Public Library will offer many public book discussions at its locations throughout the city.

Once you have your group together, an easy way to begin the book discussion is to ask everyone in your group to bring a favorite passage or question to the meeting and spend some time going around the room and discussing each one. Next, using your resource guide, focus on the main aspects of the book-settings, themes, characterization, etc.

For example:

• What in particular did everyone like about the book? Was it the characters? The way they were rendered by the author? Were they well-developed, or did you leave the book wanting to know more about them?
• What about the way the story was told? How did the voice of the book affect the reading of it? Did the voice draw you in or distance you from the story as you read?
• What are the main themes? Do any of the themes relate to topics or events in the news? Were there major conflicts in the book and were they resolved in a convincing manner?

One of the easiest-and most rewarding-things you can do with your group is to read the book and then attend a lecture by the author. Check the schedule of events on this web site to find out when and where these events are taking place.

The San Diego Public Library will also provide "BookClub in a Bag" to book groups. "BookClub in a Bag" is everything you need to set up and maintain your own book discussion group! Each bag contains:

• 10 copies of the book
• Questions and reviews for the book
• Author's biography

The San Diego Public Library will have 10 "BookClub in a Bag" sets available for checkout. Each bag may be checked out for three weeks.

Discussion Questions Courtesy of Random House

When played beautifully, as Coach Luma might say, soccer is one of the world's most flued and graceful games. How does the nature of soccer reflect and influence the ways in which the refugee children respond to the challenges of life in Clarkston? Is there something about the game that might make it particularly compelling for children who have endured war, violence, and displacement?

Coach Luma is also a Clarkston "outsider" in terms of her nationality. In what ways does her experience as an immigrant compare with those of her players? How does her "outsider" status affect the bond between the coach and her team?

Chapter 3 describes a study led by Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam that states that inhabitants of hyperdiverse communities tend to withdraw from collective life and distrust their neighbors. Are you surprised by Putnam's findings? Why or why not? How can communities best overcome this unfortunate tendency? How has the history of migration altered the cultural landscape in your community?

The Under 13s managed to develop a warm, familial connection with little regard to their cultural and religious differences, while the Under 15s were less successful in creating such an environment. Why were the younger Fugees able to bond in a way that their older counterparts were unable to achieve? How did that bond, or lack thereof, affect their performance both on and off the field?

The refugee community in Clarkston is composed of a conglomerate of religions, ethnicities, and languages. How do the contrasting experiences of the Under 13 and Under 15 players relate to the complexities that face the refugee community as a whole?

With the arrival of the Somali Bantu in Clarkston, longtime Clarkston residents became alarmed about changes in their community even though refugees had been resettling in Clarkston since the 1980s. Why was the local response suddenly more intense at this point in Clarkston's history of refugee resettlement?

How does Mandela Ziaty's struggle with issues of identity differ from that of many American born teenagers? Are there more similarities than differences? How does this dual identity as a defacto American and a displaced Liberian complicate this struggle?

In Chapter 24, Jeremy Cole, a case manager at one of the refugee agencies in Clarkston, challenged his traditional beliefs by converting to Islam. How were he and other Americans working with the refugee communities provoked to re-examine their own identities based upon their interactions with different cultures?

Discuss the problems involved in the Fugee's search for a home field. Did the Clarkston government violate their human rights? What about the situation of the Lost Boys and the use of the soccer field?