Reading Group Guide

Discussing and Responding
Jack's mother tells Betsy, "A diary is for keeping all your secrets, and nobody is allowed to read it but you." Why is it important to record your secrets in a diary or journal? A secret is no longer a secret once it is shared. What type of secrets should be shared? How do you know when a secret should be shared? Discuss incidents in the novel where Jack should have shared his secrets. Mrs. Henry tells Jack that she will get him a diary when he is old enough to have secrets. How old must a person be to have secrets? How might Mrs. Henry define
"grown-up secrets"?
In the story "Candy Itani," Jack goes to the
Baptist Mission with Johnny Ross. At the end of the story, Jack says that he will never go to the church again. What turns him against the church? What does Jack's decision reveal about him? Jack is sure to encounter Johnny
Ross at school. What do you think he will say to Johnny?
Jack is fascinated with the idea of UFO's in the story "Death and Taxes." He says that
UFO's can take him "away from all this confusion and set me down in a place without fear." Discuss the confusion and fear in Jack's life. Find incidents in the book when Jack uses humor to deal with his fear.
When the Henry family moves to Fort
Lauderdale, Jack writes in his diary, "Was this going to be a fresh start? Or was this only another beginning without an end, like all the others?" Why does Jack need a "fresh start"? What type of ending does he want?
How does Jack use humor to deal with his
"new beginning"? What could Mr. and Mrs.
Henry do to make their frequent moves easier for the children?
Reaching across the
Curriculum
Language Arts
Jack Henry likes to read detective novels.
Ask students to make a summer reading list that includes at least ten novels that they would recommend to Jack.
Jack puts fortune-cookie messages in his diary. Ask students to write a fortune-cookie message for Jack. Tell them that the message should offer him encouragement and make him feel better about himself.
Social Studies
In the story "Death and Taxes," the Henry family drives from Miami to Mount Pleasant,
Pennsylvania, to attend a family funeral. Ask students to use maps or atlases to determine the shortest route for the Henry family to take. Then, have them plan a scenic route for their return trip.
Fort Lauderdale is known as the "Venice of
Florida." Ask students to plan a day tour of
Fort Lauderdale and the surrounding areas.
Instruct them to give brief information about each site.
Science
In the story "Rabies," Jack is bitten by a dog and worries that he has been infected with rabies. Ask students to go to the library and obtain information about rabies. Have them make a pamphlet that informs other people about this deadly infection. The pamphlet should include a brief discussion about the causes, symptoms, and treatment of the infection. The students may also want to include a brief history about the discovery of the treatment of rabies.
The Henry family is preparing for a hurricane in the story "Rabies." Ask students to research the weather conditions that produce hurricanes. What is the difference between a Hurricane Warning and a
Hurricane Watch? How does the National
Hurricane Center in Florida collect and use data?
Mathematics
Ask students to use the most recent World
Almanac or the Internet to locate figures regarding the death toll and property damage from hurricanes in the United States since
1950. Have them construct graphs that compare the data. Which hurricane is considered the most devastating?