This month’s FYA Book Club selection is Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith. Check out the discussion questions below! (Slight spoilers ahead.)
P.S. If you’ve already read the book, feel free to add any other discussion questions of your own in the comments!
Icebreaker
The field that Austin and Robby name Grasshopper Jungle is one of their frequent hangouts. Where did you and your friends hang out when you were growing up? Did you have any memorable nicknames for places (or people), too?
Questions
1. Did you find Austin to be realistic? Why or why not? What did you like or didn’t like about him? Were the constant mentions of horniness excessive?
2. Did you find the dynamic between Austin, Robby, and Shann to be believable? Team Robby or Team Shann?
3. The narration relies a lot on callbacks and repetition. Did this distract from or enhance your reading experience?
4. Austin sees himself as a historian, chronicling his own family history and providing background information on every character. Did you find these details to be interesting or superfluous?
5. The Unstoppable Soldiers know how to do two things: eating and mating. Did Andrew Smith go overboard with describing either?
6. A plague strain created the Unstoppable Soldiers. Which insect or animal in giant-size would you be terrified of?
7. The book keeps stating that this is the history of the end of the world, but did you see the ending coming?
8. Grasshopper Jungle has been optioned into a movie to be directed by Edgar Wright (Scott Pilgrim, Shaun of the Dead). Who would you cast as Austin? Robby? Shann? (From the Grand Prairie, TX chapter.)
9. In the movie adaptation, how would you handle all the sexual dreams and discussions? How far is far enough but not too far to keep it at a PG-13 rating? (From the Grand Prairie, TX chapter.)
