Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. What is a frame story or frame narrative? Can you explain what this technique entails or make a logical guess about its meaning? What frame stories are you familiar with in literature or film?

Teaching Suggestion: Echo uses a fairytale-like frame story to explain the origin and purpose of the harmonica that unites the three main characters’ stories. Students will have varying degrees of familiarity with this device; to ensure that they all have sufficient background knowledge before beginning the novel, you might ask for a preliminary answer to this prompt, show students the video linked below, and then ask students to revise their first attempts at the prompt to reflect their new understanding. You might also prepare a list of frame narrative examples in advance for discussion or reference, such as The Wizard of Oz, The Princess Bride, and/or Frankenstein.

• This 7-minute video from Oregon State University answers the question, “What is a frame story?” and offers examples.
• This article from TCK Publishing explores why writers write stories within stories and identifies the different types of frame stories and their purposes.