This month’s FYA Book Club selection is Kings of B’more by R. Eric Thomas. This delightful one-weekend-adventure novel celebrates the best friendship of two queer black boys from Baltimore who go on a wild Ferris Bueller-inspired adventure before one of them moves away.
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
Harrison tries very hard to plan a perfect day as a send-off for Linus, inspired by Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. As an adult, what would you do on your own Ferris Day?
Questions
1. Did you love Harrison and Linus with all of your heart or are you wrong? Did you connect with one more over the other?
2. There are a lot of delightful secondary and minor characters in this book. Who was your favorite?
3. What did you think about the boys’ relationships with their parents?
4. Were you worried that Harrison’s perfectly crafted plans for a Ferris Day would fall through? And when it did, did you think it was successful regardless?
5. What was your favorite part of their day?
6. To keep true to life, Thomas includes mention of the COVID pandemic. How do you feel about the way he handled it?
7. Thomas’s writing is witty and filled with imagery. Did you note or highlight any passages that were particularly great?
8. Before Thomas revealed it, what did you think happened to Corrine to make her leave college?
9. Baltimore is almost a character in its own right in this book. What was your favorite location in the city?
10. Other books would have ended with Harrison and Linus professing their non-platonic love for each other. Did you like that Kings of B’more stayed true to their friendship? Why or why not?
11. Any predictions for the boys’ futures?
