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Readers > Talk it Up! > Discussion guides > 2012 Oregon Reader's Choice Award Nominees > Odd and the Frost Giants

Odd and the Frost Giants by Neil Gaiman

Discussion guide by Leslie Hemstreet

Summary

Odd is the only son of a Norseman woodcutter who dies rescuing a pony from drowning instead of something more romantic like a Viking raid. Odd's mother remarries a cruel man, and Odd decides that in spite of permanent injury to his leg, it's better to take his chances in the woods outside his house, where it’s always winter. After he unknowingly saves the life of the god, Thor, he finds himself on a journey to the land of the gods to save his village from the tyrannical endless winter of the Frost Giants.

Booktalk

Not only are you Odd your name IS Odd. Nobody likes you. Not your stepdad, not your stepbrothers and stepsisters, and certainly not your crushed and poorly healed leg that you accidentally smashed with your father's heaviest ax because after he died you tried to fill his job as woodcutter, but you were only ten. Certain death seems better to you than staying one more minute in a home where everyone is suffering from the longest winter ever.

You decide to make your way alone in the woods in the endless ice and snow. Small for your age and lame in one leg, you still have the compassion and courage to help an ailing bear with his paw stuck in a tree. You aren’t really that surprised when the the bear doesn't eat you, since a fox led you to the bear, but you are very surprised that the fox and the bear are really the Norse gods Loki and Thor and they need half-starved, sickly you to help them out of a sticky situation. Will you have the courage to face down the giant gods of winter when the higher gods haven't been able to (illustration pg. 85)? Will you ever see your family again? And who will YOU be when all is said and done?

117 (little) pages, 3rd 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. Why do you think Odd was able to face such tremendous danger with a smile on his face?
  2. Who was odd: Odd, or everyone around him?
  3. What have you done that you didn't think you were brave enough to do and then you surprised yourself?
  4. If you could be a Norse god or godess which one would you be?
  5. If you could be transformed into an animal, what species would you choose?
  6. What do you think you would see if you drank from the magic pool, Mimir's Well? What questions would you ask?
  7. Why do you think Odd's mother was not surprised at how much he had grown during his time away?
  8. Why do you think the gods accepted Loki as one of them when he used to be a Frost Giant? Why do they let him stick around when he causes so much trouble?

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Activities

Bring some prisms and information about how they work as a fun sidebar to the book discussion.

Bring examples of other interpretations of these ancient tales.

Snacks

Popsicles, Otter Pops, honeycomb