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Joyride by Gretchen Olson

Discussion Topics:

Jeff McKenzie would like to forget. Forget the night of a summer joyride in his Bronco through a local farmer's bean field. Now he has to spend his summer working with field hands at the Hampton's berry farm to pay for the damage. Jeff doesn't know how he is going to get through the summer until be begins to know Macario, who takes Jeff under his wing with a surprising kindness, and Alexa, the farmer's daughter, who helps him stake out the vandals destroying farm property during midnight raids. This is soon going to be a summer Jeff will always remember.

200 pages, 6th 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. How does Jeff end up working at the Hampton's berry farm? Do you think it is just punishment?
  2. What is Jeff's attitude towards Mexican farm workers at the beginning of the novel? How and why does this change by the end of the story?
  3. Where do you think Jeff learned some of his racist beliefs? Who else in the novel seems to feel that way?
  4. Some of the dialogue in this story is in Spanish. Were you able to follow what the characters were saying? If you don't know Spanish, how were you able to decipher the meaning of the words?
  5. What are the different ways that the Hampton's farm could be cheated or their business hurt?
  6. Have you ever gone to a U-pick fruit or vegetable farm? When you go in the future, what will you look for now that you have read this novel?
  7. Describe Marcario. What kind of a person is he? What does he teach Jeff?
  8. How do Alexa's feelings change for Jeff?
  9. Jeff finds a hawk soaring through the sky out near the farm. He continues to look for this hawk each day. What do you think the hawk symbolizes for him?
  10. Why do you think tennis becomes less and less important to Jeff?
  11. Who did you suspect was responsible for the vandalism at the farm?
  12. Do you see a future for Jeff and Alexa's relationship? Where do you think they will be in a year?

Snack ideas: Strawberries

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