These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the novel.

Pre-Reading “Icebreaker”

Imagine that you have been training in a sport since you were a little child. You love this sport and work very hard to get better at it. You finally make your dream team—and then you find out that your younger sibling, who just started playing and hardly trains at all, has also made the team. Would you be happy for your sibling? Jealous? How would it make you feel about your own hard work? Would you still feel proud of what you have achieved? Do you think it would become a problem in your relationship with your sibling?

Teaching Suggestion: Use this prompt to guide students to think about how competition affects relationships and how we feel when others seem to achieve things more easily than we do. You might ask them to suggest some strategies that people can use to process difficult emotions and deal with unpleasant realities. As The Lemonade War shows, an important part of maturing is learning how to take others’ perspectives and understand and regulate our own emotions so that we can resolve emotional conflicts like this, especially when they interfere with our happiness and relationships.