1. Standish’s former teacher used to say, “start your story at the beginning,” (p. 3). Do
you agree that is how stories should be told? Do you think this story would have had
the same impact if it had been chronological?
2. Hector says, “there are train-track thinkers, then there’s you, Standish, a breeze in
the park of imagination” (p. 4).What do you believe a train track thinker really means? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being a ‘train-track thinker’? What are the rewards and dangers of thinking differently?
3. What was one of the downsides of Standish Treadwell that may haunt him for life? Given his
circumstances, in what way are his other skills more useful to him than academics?
4. When people are killed by the government, all evidence of their existence is erased.
Why do you think the Motherland does this instead of using the killings as an example
of total control?
5. “I believe the best thing we have is our imagination,” Hector tells Standish (p. 142).
What do you think about this quote? Do you agree or disagree?
6. The people in Zone 7 condemn the lies they’re told by the Motherland, but they all
keep secrets and lie to each other. Do you think they recognise what they’re doing? If
so, how do you think they justify their actions?
7. Standish’s mother paid with her tongue and ultimately her life for dissenting against
the Motherland. Was she right to object, even though it put not only her, but her whole
family, at risk? Can you remember instances in history where people have risked their
own lives to stand up for what they believed in to change the way things were? What
would you do?
8. Standish calls Hans Fielder the “real idiot” (p. 72), because he never questions
anything. Why is it important to question authority?
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