reading group guide reading gr Francesca Lia Block, 4. In such phrases as “lanky lizards,” “duck hunt,” FrancescaFrancesca Lia Lia Lia Block,Block, Block, guideREADING GROUP GUIDE reading g and “slinkster cool” Block invents a “slanguage” for nurtured by a painter/filmmaker her characters. Can you find other examples? How father and a poet mother, wrote guideREADINGreading groupGROUP guide GUIDEread do these compare with slang that you use in talking most of her first novel, Weetzie group guide reading group gu Bat, while she was studying at with your friends? reading group g the University of California– reading group guide 5. Francesca Lia Block is also a poet. How has this Berkley. Since then, Block has influenced her style as a fiction writer? written four Weetzie sequels— READING GROUP GUID Witch Baby, Cherokee Bat and reading group guide reading group gui 6. The author says that Witch Baby is the character the Goat Guys, Missing Angel with whom she most closely identifies.How would reading group guide Photo credit:1996 Claudia Kunin Juan, and Baby Be Bop. Like READING GRO you describe Witch Baby as a person? How does Weetzie, all have received high praise and prestigious reading group guide reading gr she change over the course of the two books about awards. Ms. Block is also the author of The Hanged her (Witch Baby and Missing Angel Juan)? Man, Girl Goddess #9, and I Was a Teenage Fairy. guideREADING GROUP GUIDE reading g Francesca Lia Block lives in Los Angeles, California. 7. Witch Baby “outs” Duck to his mother[p.110]. guide reading group guide read Why do you think she does this? Is it wrong for her to do this? If you liked Dangerous Angels, try these other slinkster group guide reading group gu cool books from HarperCollins: reading group guide reading group g 8. Block’s characters love not only one another but • Kissing the Witch: • I Was a Teenage Fairy the natural world as well. How do they demonstrate Old Tales in New Skins By Francesca Lia Block group guideREADING GROU this? How does the character of Coyote Dream Song By Emma Donoghue embody this? How and why do the four magical • Laughing Out Loud, reading group guide reading group gui animal “gifts” in Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys • Am I Blue? I Fly: reading group guide change the band members? Coming Out from Poems in English READING GRO the Silence and Spanish reading group guide reading gr 9. At the end of Baby Be-Bop, Dirk thinks, “Our Edited by By Juan Felipe Herrera Marion Dane Bauer reading g stories can set us free. When we set them free.” guideREADING GROUP GUIDE • Leaving Home [p. 478] Discuss what he means by this. • Parrot in the Oven: Stories Selected by guide reading group guide read mi vida Hazel Rochman and Magic is a regular part of all of the Weetzie reading group gu 10. Winner of the National Darlene Z. McCampbell group guide Bat books. Genies, magic lamps, ghosts, tree spirits, Book Award reading group g and more are part of the characters’ daily lives. Why By Victor Martinez reading group guide do you think Block adds these magical elements to Dangerous Angels her stories? Are they enriched by this intermingling Available at your bookstore or library. READING GROUP GUID readingTHE group guideWEETZIE BAT BOOKS of the magical and the realistic? And what do you reading group gui think Block meant when she told an interviewer, Reading Group Guide written by Michael Cart reading group guide “Magic and love. That’s the equation, finally. READING GRO Out of love there emerges transformation and This reading group guide is available in bookstores everywhere, reading groupBY guide reading gr transcendence.” Finally, how does she demonstrate or call 1-800-242-7737 to order more. (Free of charge in packs of 10). reading g this in her use of myth and fairy tales in her novels? guideREADING GROUP GUIDE (E.g., the Orpheus myth in Missing Angel Juan.) guideFRANCESCAreading group guide read 10 East 53rd Street New York, NY 10022 group guide reading group gu http://www.harpercollins.com readingLIA groupBLOCK guide reading group g group guideREADING GROU Reading group guide ISBN: 0-06-449414-4 reading group guide reading group gui reading group guideREADING GRO About This Guide: Missing Angel Juan (1993), and Baby Be-Bop For Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys: AboutAbout ThisThis GuideGuide: (1995) Block enriched readers’ understanding “Block’s distinctive style has taken on breadth of her characters, of the intertwining of love and sureness in a story that resonates with Dangerous Angels brings together in one arcane animal symbolism and explores the and magic, and of the conflict between light volume all five of Francesca Lia Block’s dark power of unleashed sexuality.” and darkness in contemporary life. Block’s celebrated novels about Weetzie Bat and her —The New York Times wonderfully lyrical writing style matches nontraditional L.A. family of musicians and the authentic sweetness and fundamental filmmakers. Populated by fascinating characters, For Missing Angel Juan: innocence of her sensibility and that of her filled with the magic—and occasional “Block’s lyrical interplay of leitmotifs and characters. Because of the vividness she brings artful allusions (statues, mannequins, drag misery—of the creative life and enriched by to her California settings—Los Angeles is as queens, photos, mirrors, ghosts; pimps, themes of the redemptive power of love, respect lively a “character” as Weetzie Bat herself. wholesale butchers, vegetarians; and, of for the natural world, and the universal search course, angels) continues to be uniquely Block is sometimes described as a regional for self-identity, the Weetzie Bat books are mod- fascinating and provocative.” writer. Nothing could be further from the truth. ern classics in the making.This reading group —Kirkus Reviews In fact, her characters’ search for love, self- guide for Dangerous Angels is intended to invite expression, and personal identity is equally discussion of these unforgettable characters and For Baby Be–Bop: indigenous to the concrete canyons of New issues. “The writing is as fevered as life York and the wheat fields of the Great Plains, in Los Angeles.” —LA Times as it is to Hollywood or Weetzie’s flower- : AboutAboutAbout This ThisThis Book BookBook:: bedecked home in Laurel Canyon. The publication of Weetzie Bat in 1989 Critical Acclaim: ForForFor Discussion Discussion: :: heralded the arrival of one of the most power- CriticalCritical AcclaimAcclaim: fully original voices in contemporary literature. For Weetzie Bat: 1. The title of this book comes from a quote from Francesca Lia Block’s marriage of gritty realism “Hardened critics, who thought they’d seen Weetzie Bat: “‘Love is a dangerous angel,’ Dirk said.” and magic in the pages of her postmodern, all the possible variants of the coming-of-age [p. 11] What does Dirk mean by this? How would you apply this quote to the four other Weetzie Bat books? punk fairy tale was brilliantly innovative. novel, were astonished by the freshness of At the same time, her celebration of love Francesca Lia Block’s voice.” 2. According to The New York Times, “Ms. Block —The New York Times writes about the real Los Angeles better than anyone in all of its varieties—both heterosexual and since Raymond Chandler.” Discuss some of the ways homosexual—and the expression it finds in For Witch Baby: in which the author brings such vivid life to her setting. nontraditional or blended families invited “The seriousness of Witch Baby’s quest is 3. Missing Angel Juan takes place in New York. controversy among critics but attracted the underscored by carefully wrought metaphors Does this change of setting make the novel significantly passionate devotion of readers everywhere. and delicate allusions to fairy tales. Block’s different from the other Weetzie Bat books? This is also second novel is even richer and more the only Weetzie Bat novel to be told in a first person In the books that followed—Witch Baby (1991), delightful than its predecessor.” voice, that of Witch Baby. In what ways does this change the experience of reading the book? Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys (1992), —Publishers Weekly eading group guidereading group guide READING GROUP GUIDEreading group guide reading group READING GROUP GUIDEreading group guide reading group guide READING GROUP GUIDE READING