Discussion Guide Just Kids 1. How did you like the book, “Just Kids” by 5. What similarities did Smith have with Patti Smith? Were you familiar with both Smith Baudelaire and Rimbaud? What attracted her and Mapplethorpe before reading this book? to them? 2. How do you think Patti and Robert’s 6. Do you find it odd that Robert didn’t leave upbringing affected their lives once they were in any of his art or belongings to Patti when he New York? Did Mapplethorpe’s religious belief died? affect his work? 7. Who do you think should play Patti Smith and 3. Do you think that Smith glamorized or Robert Mapplethorpe in a film version of the exaggerated her memories from that time? book? 4. Do you think that the collective determination of these two people propelled them into fame? What about this specific time and place in history? Would they both have become famous under other circumstances? Was it destiny that brought them together? Suggested further reading: Auguries of Innocence: Poems by Patti Smith Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Moment by Break it Up: Pattie Smith’s Horses and the Janet Kardon Remaking of Rock ‘n’ Roll by Mark Paytress Some Women by Robert Mapplethorpe Legends of the Chelsea Hotel: Living with The Garden of Earthly Delights: Photographs Artists and Outlaws in New York's Rebel Mecca by Edward Weston and Robert Mapplethorpe by Ed Hamilton curated by Mark Johnstone and Jonathan Mapplethorpe: A Biography by Patricia Green Morrisroe A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan Patti Smith Complete 1976-2006 Lyrics, Who Shot Rock and Roll: A Photographic Reflections & Notes for the Future by Patti History, 1955-Present by Gail Buckland Smith Robert Mapplethorpe: Portraits by Gordon Baldwin .