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 typically meant by the word counterculture? What facts, historical details, and images come to mind regarding the 1960s and “hippies” in particular?

Teaching Suggestion: Showing a few images from history or pop culture may be helpful in aligning student responses with the correct general time period and movement. Once students have a chance to share their ideas (perhaps in a collective word cloud on the board or display), they might break down the term counterculture and investigate the issues commonly “countered” or protested in the period.

• “The 60s: Years That Changed America” is a 5-minute video produced by Carnegie Hall summarizing the turbulent social issues at play during the 1960s and emphasizing the period’s art and music.
• Robert Palomo’s “The Last Nomad Hippies” is a photo essay published in The Guardian that offers a look at “hippie” culture today.
• This overview of “hippie” culture identifies key characteristics of this movement.

2. What kinds of issues and stories do young adult novels typically address? How is young adult fiction typically characterized? How does this genre differ from other fiction genres?