Lesson 2

The Grand Genius Summer of Henry Hoobler
By Lisa Shanahan

Shortlisted for the CBCA's Younger Readers Book of the Year 2018

Before Reading

  1. Do you play with your brothers and sisters?
  2. Are relationships with brothers and sisters different to our friends? How?
  3. Do you ever fight with your siblings?
  4. What do you fight about or over?
  5. Why do bothers and sisters tease and "annoy" one another but at the same time love one another?

Reading

Today we are going to read the second chapter.
The second chapter is titled, "Arriving."
Read first and then use the following questions to guide discussion afterwards:
  1. What more do we learn about the character of Henry from this chapter?
  2. What things in this second chapter could you relate to? Have you experienced any of the things that Henry has in this chapter?
  3. Henry learning to ride a bike was mentioned several times during this chapter? Why do you think it was a topic that kept coming up? Is it a big deal for Henry? What could he be worried about in learning to ride his new bike?
  4. A new character, a girl, appears in this chapter. Do you think she will be a significant character in the book? Why do you think this? Do we know her name and do we know why she is there? 
  5. Authors will often gradually introduce characters into a story and slowly reveal information about them. Why do you think authors do this? What effect does that have?

To think about ...

Lisa Shanahan said: 
‘I wanted to write a funny book that captured the fast interactions of family life—the awkwardness and tenderness of loving your embarrassing parents and your annoying, frustrating siblings. I wanted to write a book where a middle child came to a certain peace about the ways in which his older and younger siblings encroach on his space. I wanted to explore the ways an unexpected friendship like the one between Cassie and Henry can help him to see in a new way.’
Even though we haven't read the whole book yet, do you think the second chapter has managed to achieve any/some of the things that Lisa Shanahan set out to do when writing this story?