Why do you think Andrea Davis Pinkney chose to tell Amira’s story—The Red Pencil—as a novel in verse? How would the impact of the novel have differed if it had been written in clear-cut prose instead?

Discuss the role that art and creative expression play in different characters’ healing from trauma.

Soil—specifically, sand (goz)—works as both symbol and recurring motif in the novel. Consider what soil signifies in Amira’s village and in Kalma. Which theme(s) does soil play into?