NEWYORKTIMES BESTSELLINGAUTHORS

Off the Page

This guide includes Discussion Questions, Creative Writing Connections that correlate to the Common Core, and a special section for Mother-Daughter Book Clubs!

THECOMPANIONTO BETWEENTHELINES DISCUSSION GUIDE INCLUDES COMMON CORE STANDARD CORRELATIONS ABOUT THE BOOK

rom #1 New York Times best- sellingF authors and her daughter and coauthor, Samantha van Leer, comes OFF THE PAGE, a tender and appealing romantic YA novel filled with humor, adventure, and magical relationships. Meet Oliver, a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairy tale and transported into the real world. Meet Delilah, the girl who wished Oliver into being. It’s a miracle that seems perfect at first—but there are complications. To exist in Delilah’s world, Oliver must take the place of a regular boy. Enter Edgar, who agrees to play Oliver’s role in the pages of Delilah’s favorite book. But just when Grades 7 and up HC: 978-0-553-53556-3 it seems that the plan will work, EL: 978-0-553-53558-7 everything gets turned upside down. Full of humor and witty commentary ABOUT THE AUTHORS about life, OFF THE PAGE is a stand- alone novel as well as the companion JODI PICOULT is the author of to the authors’ bestseller, Between twenty-three novels, including the #1 the Lines, and is perfect for readers New York Times bestsellers Leaving looking for a fairy-tale ending. Fans Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, of Sarah Dessen and Meg Cabot are Sing You Home, , Handle sure to appreciate this novel about with Care, , Nineteen love, romance, and relationships. Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She also cowrote the #1 New York Times bestseller Between the Lines, the companion to Off the Page, with her daughter, Samantha van Leer. Jodi lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. Visit her online at jodipicoult.com.

Seibert Elena by © 2015 SAMANTHA VAN LEER is a sopho- more at Vassar College majoring in psychology with a minor in human development. She cowrote the #1 Jodi and Samantha have four dogs: New York Times bestseller Between Alvin, Harvey, Dudley, and Oliver, the Lines, the companion to Off the for whom the prince in this story is Page, with her mother, Jodi Picoult. named. PRE-READING QUESTIONS

eading. Think about a book that you have read and enjoyed. What madeR this book particularly appealing to you? What specific elements of the plot, characters, setting, or language affected you? What role does your imagination play when you read a book?

riendship. Think about the people in your life who are your friends. How didF you get to know these people, and how did your friendships develop?What makes these friendships positive or negative? What are some ways people show you friendship, and how do you respond? What would you do if you were separated from your friends?

scape. How do books or movies provide an escape from the real world? EHave you ever wanted to escape into the universe of a book or a movie? What do you imagine life would be like there, and how would it be similar or different from your real life? Would you want to stay there forever? Why or why not?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

DENTITY LIQUES WhenI Oliver poses as Jessamyn’s son, CAs he begins to understand high Edgar, she notices slight changes in school cliques, Oliver wonders: him and warns, “It might be fun to “When you have so many people, change it up, Edgar, but don’t forget each one inevitably fascinating, why who you are” (p. 31). Later, James also would you limit yourself to only suggests to Oliver, “Maybe instead of those like you?” (p. 62). pretending to be someone you’re not, 1) How would you answer you should just be yourself” (p. 82). Oliver’s question? 1) Why do you think Jessamyn and 2) Why do you think that people James both offer Oliver (posing as tend to be friends with others Edgar) similar advice? What do who are like them? they mean? What examples from 3) How are you and your friends the text support your thinking? similar to or different from 2) How does Oliver’s situation lend each other? irony to their words of advice? Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards 3) How might you apply their CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 suggestions to your own life? Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 DISCUSSION QUESTIONS CONTINUED . . .

PPEARANCE CTING ConsiderA the role that physical AThroughout the book, Oliver struggles appearance plays in the lives of with his role as an actor—first in each of the characters. For example, the fairy tale, and again when he Delilah worries that she’s not as impersonates Edgar: “I wasn’t pretty as Allie McAndrews (p. 86); expecting to be released from a Jules experiments with edgy style (p. book in which I spent every moment 7); Oliver exchanges his princely hose pretending to be a person I’m not only for “classic jeans, solid T-shirt, leather to wind up doing it all over again” satchel” (p. 85); Frump wants to (p. 29). appear more attractive to Seraphima 1) How does Oliver feel about acting (p. 73); and Seraphima wears jeans the various roles he must play— underneath her princess gown (p. 292). prince, son, boyfriend, drama club 1) What is the signi cance of performer, hero? physical appearance in Delilah’s 2) What are some of the roles that world versus the world of Oliver’s other characters in the novel play, fairy tale? and for what reasons? If “all the 2) What do the characters’ physical world’s a stage” (p. 294), is it better appearances reveal about them? to be an actor or to be genuine? 3) How does the author use changes 3) In your own life, what roles do you in each character’s physical play, and how do they affect you? appearance to illustrate his or her Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards development? CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 OVE LAt various points in the novel, each ATE of the main characters struggles to OliverF tries to escape the fate written understand the nature of love. For for him in his fairy tale, in search of example, Delilah asks, “Is love really “a life that didn’t have such a rigid this hard?” (p. 92) and later wonders, plotline” (p. 9). But the narrator asks, “How come love is never simple?” “Reader, do you believe in Fate? Do (p 179). you believe that somewhere, there’s a 1) What are some times when Delilah, grand plan for each of us?” (p. 155). Oliver, and Edgar question the true 1) How would you answer the nature of love? narrator’s question? 2) How do their questions reveal their 2) What role does Fate play in the character development? novel, for the characters in 3) How would you answer their Oliver’s fairy tale and the questions about what love is? How characters in Delilah’s world? do you think each character would 3) What role do you believe Fate de ne love by the end of the plays in your own life, and in the novel? Do you agree with one of lives of those around you? their de nitions of love more than Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards the others? CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.R.3, CCRA.R.R.4, CCRA. SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 AMILY ISAPPOINTMENT NearF the end of the novel, Oliver asks AfterD a fight with Oliver, Delilah Queen Maureen, “I don’t think family asks, “Who would have thought that has to be related by blood, do you? having your dreams come true would Don’t you think family is the people suck so much?” (p. 84). who love you the most?” (p. 323). 1) Why does Delilah feel disappointed 1) Based on his interactions with other even though her dreams have come characters, who would Oliver true? consider to be his family? 2) What is the difference between her 2) How does your own de nition of expectations and the reality of having “family” compare to Oliver’s? What Oliver in her world? are the different shapes that a family 3) Why does she remember the might take? warning “Be careful what you wish 3) Who are the people you consider to for” (p. 64)? be your family, and why? Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.R.4, CCRA. CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.R.4, CCRA. SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 EADER REEDOM WhileR inside the fairy tale, Edgar OliverF leaves the fairy tale world in realizes, “Without a reader, a story order to be free to do what he wishes, is only half complete. . . . Without a while Edgar takes his place in the reader, the words just sit on the page, fairy tale for the same reason: to waiting to come alive in someone’s escape his own reality in search of a imagination” (p. 38). new adventure (pp. 35–37). 1) What do the novel’s authors believe 1) How does each character’s situation about the reader’s participation in shape his or her view of freedom? creating and shaping a story? What 2) Does the fairy tale represent elements of the text reveal the freedom and escape, or does it trap authors’ beliefs? the characters inside it? 2) What is the relationship between an 3) Do you think Oliver, Edgar, and author, the characters, and the Delilah nd the freedom they are reader? searching for? 3) What is the role of imagination Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards in storytelling? CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.R.4, CCRA. 4) Do you agree with the authors’ SL.1, CCRA.SL.4 ideas about how each reader participates in the story? Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.R.R.1, CCRA.R.R.2, CCRA.R.R.3, CCRA.R.R.4, CCRA.R.6, CCRA.SL.1,SL.1, CCRA.SL.4SL.4 CREATIVE WRITING CONNECTIONS

OPE EETING JustH before Edgar and Oliver attempt to DelilahM fell in love with Oliver when he switch places for the last time to save was simply a character on the page, long Jessamyn’s life, the narrator interjects with before he escaped from the fairy tale into a brief digression on hope: “Hope is what her world. Think about your favorite makes you look outside the window to see character from any story—literature, if it’s stopped raining. . . . Hope is what graphic novel, drama, film—and what it makes us believe that things can only get would be like to meet him or her in the real better. Hope is what keeps us going” (p. world. Write the dramatic scene in which 327). Another famous description of hope you meet for the first time. Then share it appears in the poetry of Emily Dickinson: with a small group of peers. Revise your “Hope is the thing with feathers.” scene, incorporating feedback from the (complete poem available online from group as well as your own edits. the Poetry Foundation). Compare and Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards contrast these two understandings of CCRA.R.3, CCRA.W.3, CCRA.W.4., CCRA.W.5, the word “hope.” Then create your own CCRA.W.9, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2 definition of the word, in either poetry or prose, by completing the idea “Hope is . . .” IMAGINATION Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards Inside the fairy tale, Edgar and Jessamyn CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.6, CCRA.W.3, find a portal on the copyright page that CCRA.W.4, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2, CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.5 leads to the room of her imagination— filled with bookshelves and cluttered with various artifacts representing all IARY of the ideas and abandoned stories in TheD narrator writes, “A fairy tale is a Jessamyn’s writing mind. Consider your snapshot too. You never know what goes own creative mind: If your imagination on post-happily-ever-after” (p. 249). is a room, what does it look like? What At the end of the novel, Delilah gives objects or people are inside it, and what Oliver a diary so he can write his own might they represent? Where is this room story. Choose the perspective of any located, and how do you enter it? Write a character from the novel and write his or descriptive scene in which you enter the her first few diary entries “post-happily- room of your imagination, using specific ever-after.” Use the entries to chronicle details to create a symbolic representation that character’s thoughts, feelings, and of your own mind. experiences, starting the day after the Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards novel ends. CCRA.R.5, CCRA.W.3, CCRA.W.4, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2, Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards CCRA.L.3 CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.W.3, CCRA.W.4, CCRA.W.9, CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2 PHOTOGRAPHS Oliver loves Mrs. McPhee’s photo albums because they tell the story of Delilah growing up. Choose a selection of images from your childhood, and use it to write your own narrative of growing up. Use RHTeachersLibrarians.com a combination of images and text to tell the story of how you became the person you are today. This guide was created by Laura Schick, Correlates to Common Core Anchor Standards a librarian at Jesuit High School in Portland, Oregon. CCRA.W.3, CCRA.W.4., CCRA.L.1, CCRA.L.2, CCRA.L.3