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Readers > Talk it Up! > Discussion guides > 2011 Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominees > Paper Towns

Paper Towns by John Green

Discussion guide written by Michelle Loh and the Northwest Library Teen Council members.

Booktalk

Have you ever liked someone that barely acknowledged your existence? Quentin "Q" Jacobsen has had a crush on his neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman, the most popular girl in school, since they were kids. She's gorgeous, seeks out adventure and danger, and is a complete mystery. With high school graduation just a few weeks away, Q is shocked when Margo appears at his window one night. She convinces him to join her on a mission for revenge and mayhem that will last till the early morning; but before they can begin, they have to buy three whole catfish, Veet, a tub of Vaseline, Mountain Dew, tulips, a bottle of water, tissue, and one can of blue spray paint.

When Margo doesn't show up for class the next day and disappears, Q becomes obsessed with trying to find her. He enlists his friends to help him follow the trail of clues she left behind. The first clue, a Woody Guthrie poster, leads him and his friends on a series of adventures that take them all over Orlando and its endless subdivisions. It isn't until the day before graduation that Q thinks he's finally solved the mystery, but it will mean skipping graduation to find her before she disappears again. Will they find Margo? Is she the girl that Q and everyone else always thought she was? This book is intense, suspenseful, and full of funny moments that will keep you reading until the mystery of Margo Roth Speigelman is solved.

Booktalk by Michelle Loh

305 pages, 9th grade and up

Discussion questions

Warning! Some of the questions contain key elements of the plot. Do not read if you don't want to know what happens!

  1. What are paper towns and how does the meaning change throughout the book?
  2. In the beginning, Quentin recalls the disturbing memory of finding a dead man in a park with Margo when they were nine. How did each respond when they found him, and what do their responses tell you about their personalities?
  3. What do you think of Margo's plot to take revenge on her friends? Did they deserve it?
  4. What did you think of Margo's character? How do the other characters feel about her? By the end of the book, does Q finally feel like he knows the "real" Margo?
  5. Quentin convinces his friends to go on a road trip to find Margo on the day of their graduation. Where did they stop along the way and what supplies did they desperately need?
  6. Margo leaves a series of cryptic clues for Quentin. Can you name them all in the order that he found them?
  7. Where do they finally find Margo and did she want to be found?
  8. When Quentin finds a highlighted passage in Margo's book of Walt Whitman poems he tries to decipher the link between the passage and her disappearance. How might the passage and the Whitman poems relate to the themes in the book, the characters, and their journey?

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