Discussion Questions for What’s so great about ? • Do you think Auden’s mother is threatened by her Read them all! Along for the Ride daughter’s choice to spend the summer with her father and his new family? What does her mother • Why is it so difficult for Auden to feel like a “normal” fear will happen? teenager? • How does Auden’s relationship with her step • In what ways are Hollis’ and Auden’s childhoods mother, Heidi, change? What does Auden discover different? How has this affected them as they have about Heidi throughout the course of the story? matured and made important decisions about their • Explain the significance of the picture frame lives? Hollis sends home to Auden; why does the • Auden and her new sister, Thisbe, are named after inscription, “The Best of Times” bother her so literary influences in her father’s life. Why are much? How does this gift serve as a catalyst for • $19.99 HC: 978-0-670-01194-0 names so important to Auden’s dad, Robert? What change in Auden’s plans? does he believe the right name will do for his chil- • Why does Auden feel she needs to stay with dren? How does the baby’s name cause a conflict her dad and Heidi after their baby is born? between Auden’s dad and Heidi? What does the What does she hope to gain from her visit? result of their disagreement indicate about their HC: 978-0-670-01088-2 • $18.99 HC: 978-0-670-06105-1 • $18.99 relationship? • Auden’s first encounter with Eli comes when she PB: 978-0-14-241472-9 • $8.99 PB: 978-0-14-241097-4 • $8.99 is taking her baby sister for a stroll in hopes of • Auden’s mom tells her, “People don’t change. If settling her down. When Eli observes the crying anything you get more set in your ways as you baby, Auden tells him, “It’s been a long night.” Eli When Ruby’s mother disap- Last year, Annabel get older, not less.” (page 13) Do you agree with comments, “Aren’t they all.” What can you infer from pears, Ruby remains silent was the girl who has this statement? Why or why not? Are there any his statement? and lives alone. When she’s everything—at least characters in the novel who show considerable discovered by the landlord, that’s the part she PB: 978-0-14-241472-9 • $8.99 978-0-14-241472-9 PB: PB: 978-0-14-241097-4 • $8.99 978-0-14-241097-4 PB: • Describe Auden. Is she the type of person you • $8.99 978-014-240625-0 PB:

change throughout the course of the story? • $18.99 HC: 978-0-670-06105-1

HC: 978-0-670-01088-2 • $18.99 HC: 978-0-670-01088-2 played in the television would want to befriend? Why or why not? • $16.99 HC: 978-0-670-03639-4 Ruby knows that the game • Explain the significance of the picture frame Hollis is up. Social services place commercial for Kopf’s sends home to Auden; why does the inscription, her in the care of her Cora, Department Store. • Auden thinks, “Stuff that would be weird in the This year, she’s the girl hen it comes to academics, Auden “The Best of Times” bother her so much? How does the sister she hasn’t seen bright light of day just wasn’t so much once you who has nothing: no knows all about being the best. In this gift serve as a catalyst for change in Auden’s in ten years, and Cora’s passed a certain hour. It was like the dark just best friend because W life, however, she’s learned that it’s plans? evened it all out, somehow.” In what ways do the husband Jamie, whose mean-but-exciting easier to avoid the things that don’t guarantee • Why does Auden feel she needs to stay with her night time events liberate her? down-to-earth demeanor success. One of her biggest challenges is Sophie dropped her, dad and Heidi after their baby is born? What does makes it hard for Ruby to no peace at home her insomnia, and so she fills her nights with The Truth About • Since much of the action of the story takes place she hope to gain from her visit? at night, do you think the relationship between believe he founded the since her older sister PB: 978-0-14-240177-4 • $8.99 978-0-14-240177-4 PB: studying and preparing for college. When a • $8.99 978-0-14-240172-9 PB: PB: 978-0-14-250155-9 • $8.99 978-0-14-250155-9 PB: most popular networking became anorexic, and HC: 978-0-670-87778-2 • $17.99 HC: 978-0-670-87778-2 • In what ways is Robert contributing to Heidi’s Auden and Eli would have been the same if their • $16.99 HC: 978-0-670-06110-5 Sarah Dessen Q&A • $16.99 HC: 978-0-670-03530-4 bizarre gift from her globe-trotting, carefree sense of helplessness and depression? How would time together had been during the day? Web site around. A luxuri- no one to sit with at brother arrives, Auden is inspired to accept ous house, fancy private lunch. Until she meets you describe his character? • In what ways are Auden and Eli similar? How are her father’s invitation to join him and his new school, a new wardrobe, the Owen Armstrong. • On her first night in Colby, Auden has a personal they different? family for the summer before she heads to promise of college and a Tall, dark, and music college. After witnessing the conflict between encounter with Jake. Why does she regret her • Eli tells Auden, “It’s never too late to have a happy obsessed, Owen is a actions? How do the other characters regard her future—it’s a dream come her father and his new wife, a late-night project childhood.” (page 15) What does Eli do to help true. So why is Ruby such reformed bad boy with because of this experience? a commitment to truth lands Auden a job at Clementine’s, a local Auden change and grow as a person? a reluctant Cinderella, wary telling. With Owen’s boutique; and it is here that she opens her • Auden’s mother calls her daughter regularly in • Adam tells Auden, “It all counts, the bottom line and defensive? And why is order to receive reports about how things are help, maybe Annabel mind and heart to new friends and experiences. is what defines you isn’t how many times you Nate, the genial boy next can face what happened PB: 978-0-14-240176-7 • $8.99 978-0-14-240176-7 PB: PB: 978-0-14-240175-0 • $8.99 978-0-14-240175-0 PB:

going at Auden’s father’s. Why does her mother • $8.99 978-0-14-250103-0 PB: HC: 978-0-670-89122-1 • $16.99 HC: 978-0-670-89122-1

With the help of Eli, a local boy with a tragic crash, but the number of times you get back on • $17.99 HC: 978-0-670-88549-7 show so such interest in Robert’s life? door with some secrets of the night she and Sophie past, Auden begins to learn that sometimes the bike. As long as it’s one more, you’re all his own, unable to accept stopped being friends. life can be messy and that success or failure • From Auden’s perspective, the girls she works with good.” Do you agree? Why or why not? the help that Ruby is just isn’t measured by how often you crash, it’s at Clementine’s (Maggie, Leah, and Esther) are • In what way does Auden finally learn to go “along Visit the world of Sarah Dessen at Sarah-land.com learning to give? measured by how many times you get back typical teenage girls. In what ways is her vision for the ride”? on the bike and try to ride. reshaped as she gets to know them more intimately? Viking • Puffin Books Divisions of Penguin Young Readers Group Viking • Puffin Books Viking • Puffin Books (bundles of ten) 978-0-670-01757-7 Divisions of Penguin Young Readers Group Divisions of Penguin Young Readers Group Discussion Discussion The Truth About Q: The setting for Along for the Ride is the fictional beach Questions for Questions for town of Colby, North Carolina, first used in your novel . What about this town drew you back Lock and Key and made you want to explore it further? ABOUT THE AUTHOR • Do you believe that • When Ruby is discovered A: I knew I wanted to set the book at the beach, and it just people who seem to living alone, why is she so Q&A seemed like a good fit to go back to Colby, a place that have everything are afraid of being taken from I (and a lot of my readers) already knew pretty well. Plus, both Along for the Ride and Keeping the Moon are stories truly happy? Why or the yellow house? Why Q: In Along for the Ride, Auden is the daughter of why not? does she want to prove about transformation and finding acceptance. In my mind, university professors; did your own experience of Along for the Ride is kind of a companion to the earlier • Annabel is unable to that she can make it on being the daughter of academics influence the story her own? Why does her novel. I was ready to go back to that place, and those talk about what has in any way? themes, but take them further and do more. It’s my hope happened to her; why mother abandon her? I was actually kind of worried about making that I achieved that. do you think she • The new life Cora offers A: Auden’s parents professors, as I didn’t want people chooses to remain Ruby is ideal in many to think they were based on my own. My parents are Q: Fear both motivates and incapacitates many of the silent about what has ways: they live in a not nearly so dramatic! That said, growing up in an characters in the novel. What inspired you to use this as a happened? beautiful home, Ruby academic town as a “faculty brat” definitely shapes the major theme of Along for the Ride? gets to attend a private • Why does Annabel find way you see things. So Auden and I definitely share school, and she has a A: At the time I started the book, I was dealing with a it so difficult to be some of that outlook, even if our parents are very dif- family on whom she can whole new world of being a mom, and some days—like honest about her feel ferent. when I felt like I had no idea what I was doing—it was ings in general? How count. Why do you think Ruby wants to reject this really scary. I am someone who likes to be in control, and have her own actions One of Auden’s greatest challenges is her inability new life? Q: when you have a child; you realize that that is just not in caused her to be in to sleep during the night. Have you from insomnia? the cards very often. So I was having to adjust, and push the miserable situation • What is the significance through some things, and that carried into the book as well. in which she finds of Ruby attempting to run A: I’ve never had insomnia. I actually got the idea for Auden being up all night from the fact that I had a herself? away from her sister’s Q: What’s the best part of writing for teens? home? Why do you think newborn, which totally changed my sleeping sched- • Due to the death of ule. I’d be awake at two or three a.m. feeding her and The audience is so enthusiastic. Adults are great her own mother, she ultimately decides to A: remain? wonder who else was up, and why. It got me thinking, readers as well, but they can’t help but be a little more Annabel’s mother and the story just came from there. jaded. But when you write for teens, you’re lucky enough seems unaware of the • In what ways is Nate in to be getting to people just when they are discovering emotional turmoil faced denial about his relation- Heidi, Auden’s stepmother, has just had a baby the amazing connection they can make with a story or by her daughters. How Q: ship with his father? Do and is struggling to adjust to the demands of character. They feel so much more, and are so much more does her emotional you think he is right to motherhood. Did your own experiences with being involved in what they see on the page. It’s a great thing. absence contribute excuse his behavior? a new mom shape this story thread? to her daughters’ • Discuss the significance Q: What influences your writing? problems? of the necklace trend A: Definitely. I was lucky in that my daughter was arah Dessen grew up in Chapel Hill, not colicky like Auden’s baby sister Thisbe; but I still A: I’m influenced by everything, I think. What I read, what • In what ways have that Ruby unintentionally I see. The people in my life, the stories they tell (which I try North Carolina, and attended UNC- Owen’s issues with starts. Why is the charm had my share of new-mom stress, and I was glad to have somewhere to write about it. That’s the thing with not to steal, although it’s hard when the stories are really anger management so important? What good). But with this book especially, it’s my own experienc- Chapel Hill, graduating with highest shaped who he is do you think the key writing YA. You have to be creative in working in more “adult” experiences, and secondary characters are a es that really provided the basis of what ended up on the honors in Creative Writing. She is the today? Do you think symbolizes? page. Being awake at all hours, learning about being there S great way to do it. he is a better friend to • What does Ruby learn for someone, it all came from what was happening to me. author of nine novels, including Someone Like Annabel because of it? from her relationship with Why or why not? Q: Most of the teen characters in the novel have You and Just Listen. A motion picture based Nate? How are their grown up together in their small community. How Q: What advice can you give to aspiring writers? • Owen tells Annabel. relationships with their similar to your own experience as a teen in a small The best advice is to read as much as you can, whenever on her first two books, entitled How to Deal Reading Group Guide “Don’t think or judge. individual families similar? A: you can. It’s the only real way to learn things like dialogue Just listen.” (page In what ways are they town is this story? was released in 2003. Sarah lives in Chapel and setting and plotting. I’d also say to just keep your eyes 183) Explain what you different? A: I think there are good and bad things about being open and pay attention to the world around you. If you’re Hill with her husband, daughter, and two very believe he means by • From your experience, do from a small town, where everyone knows everyone a writer, you already see things in a different way from spoiled dogs, where she spends her time Relationships. Romance. Real Life. this statement. Do you you think it’s difficult for else. There is a sense of history and inclusiveness, other people. You’re more aware of the little details, tiny agree with him? most people to reach out which is very nice. At the same time, everyone knows touches that maybe others might miss. The trick is to take gardening, watching bad TV shows, and trying • In what ways could for help? To whom do you EVERYONE, so it’s hard to ever be anything new or that awareness and get it down on the page. And finally, Annabel’s family have turn when you are in need? different. I tried to show the various sides of that with I’d say that you have to believe in yourself. Because on the to break her addiction to the clearance rack dealt differently with Maggie’s sentimentality and Leah’s frustration when bad days, or when you get a bad review, you need to really at Gap. Visit the world of Sarah Dessen at Whitney’s eating it came to Colby and the boys they knew there. They know that there’s a reason you do this that has nothing to disorder? were like flip sides of the same coin. do with anyone but you. www.sarah-land.com.