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Readers > Talk it Up! > Discussion guides > 2012 Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominees > Love is the Higher Law

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

Discussion guide written by Lee Catalano

Summary

Three teens living in New York City react to the bombing of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, and describe its impact on their lives and the world.

Booktalk

What David Levithan wants to remember is the humanity, the kindness, the feeling of community, the deepening of love and friendship. No one will have any problem remembering other stuff – our fear, anger, sadness, the utter sense of helplessness we felt on September 11, 2001. We can still summon up those feelings today, ten years later. But with the stories of New Yorkers Claire, Peter, and Jasper, the author of this book, David Levithan, wants us to consider that something good may have come out of this terrible national tragedy.

Claire is in home room when it happens. Peter is waiting for Tower Records to open so he can buy the latest Bob Dylan CD. And Jasper, well I’ll let Jasper tell you himself: "I missed the whole goddamned thing. Slept late . . . was completely oblivious."

Follow these three teens through the days and weeks following that day, as their lives connect and separate, as they realize how 9/11 changed them. For the better . . .

167 pages, 8th 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. We only meet Claire, Peter, and Jasper after 9/11. What do you think they were like before?
  2. Jasper and Peter’s date a few days afterwards is described by each of them. What do you learn by hearing about it from their different perspectives?
  3. Peter’s chapter about the date is called "The Date," but Jasper’s is called "Limbo." Why?
  4. Why does Claire try to keep the candles lit that night in Union Square?
  5. How does meeting Claire at Ground Zero change Jasper?
  6. How does 9/11 change each character?
  7. The U2 song where the book’s title appears is called "One." Does this have any relevance to the novel? What does the book’s title mean to you?

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Snacks

Comfort food might be a good idea.