This month’s FYA Book Club selection is Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. 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
1. Rhoda tells Emily that Teddy Kent is her beau, because:
I shook hands with him after I’d counted nine stars for nine nights without missing a night. If you do that the first boy you shake hands with afterwards is to be your beau.
As a child, did you have any superstitions or strange rules that you followed?
2. Rhoda and Emily are best friends, until Rhoda turns out to be an awful person. Did you have any fast friendships as a child that died just as intensely as they began?
Questions
1. In a letter to a fan, L.M. Montgomery wrote, “I’m glad you like Emily, because she is my own favorite. She is purely a creature of my imagination but a good deal of my own inner life in childhood and girlhood went into her.” Can you relate to Emily? And if you’ve read the Anne of Green Gables series, are you more of an Anne Shirley or an Emily Starr?
2. The Emily series was published after the massive success of Anne of Green Gables. Do you feel that Emily’s story is unique and wholly her own, or does it feel like a copy of Anne’s story? In what ways are their stories similar? And in what ways do they diverge?
3. L.M. Montgomery explores a variety of social and political issues through Emily’s eyes, particularly religion and gender. Do you think she was trying to express certain opinions on these topics through Emily’s story? If so, what did you grasp her opinions to be?*
*If your club isn’t familiar with Montgomery’s life, take a quick look at her Wiki page. Her romantic history is particularly enlightening.
4. On the note of romance, how did you feel about Dean Priest’s interest in Emily?
5. Teddy or Perry?
6. Aunt Nancy: Awesome or Terrible?
7. Teddy’s mother is both emotionally abusive and highly enmeshed with her son. Did you pity her or hate her?
8. Montgomery’s writing is wonderfully descriptive (and sometimes hilarious). Did you have any lines or passage that you highlighted that truly resonated with you?
