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

Pre-Reading “Icebreaker”

In the book you are about to read, an animal is used to symbolize an entire group of people. Identify a group of which you are a member—such as a gender or sex, a religious or ethnic group, or an interest group or political affiliation—and choose an animal that would make a good symbol for this group. Explain what qualities of the group this animal represents, and why.

Teaching Suggestion: Use this prompt to guide students to think about how groups of people choose to represent themselves, how objective and accurate self-generated representations are, and the importance of allowing people to represent themselves. Encourage students to discuss whether it is problematic for one member of a group to choose how the group will be represented. Ask how The Power of Inner Knowing influences our self-representations, and how forces outside of ourselves might also influence these representations. Ask under what circumstances self-representation can end up being self-defeating and how, under different circumstances, it can be inspiring.

Post-Reading Analysis

During the course of the book, in what different ways does Doyle reinvent parts of her life and her identity? Who was she as a young child? What changed when she was ten? How did her life change again when she learned she was pregnant with her first child? What further turning points in her adult life does she discuss? Do you agree with her idea that in order to make way for new parts of our lives and identities, sometimes the old ones have to be—at least figuratively—destroyed?