Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
Reading Guide, Chapters 17-19
1. Would you enjoy all the media and attention Eric gets in the hospital? What sorts of headlines do you suppose appeared in the local papers?
2. Was Sarah’s search for her mother a success? Do you think Sarah would do it over again, knowing the outcome?
3. How does Carver manage to capture Brynes when so many others have failed? Do you think Carver should have been put in jail? What do you think Chris Crutcher thinks about “vigilante justice”? Do you think Carver is a good match for Eric’s mother?
4. Do you think Eric was right to keep Sarah from running away to Kansas? Are you surprised by Sarah’s adoption? Had you believed that Sarah would be happily reunited with her mother? If you were rewriting the ending of this story, what would you have happen to her?
5. Ms. Lemry compares her experience with the baseball glove to Sarah’s loss of mother/physical normalcy. How are the two comparable? What are some of the larger losses that you have experienced? Did you cope with them in any of the same ways as Sarah?
6. What difficulties does Mark face after his suicide attempt? How would you try to help him? What does Eric do for him?
7. What do you learn about the colleges Eric, Ellerby, Jody, and Sarah will be attending? Are you surprised that none decided on the same school?
8. How will Eric, Jody, Sarah, and Ellerby be spending the afternoon, at the end of the story? Do you think Sarah and Jody will become good friends?
9. Do any questions remain in your mind after finishing this part of the book?
10. What do you think Eric and Sarah’s lives will be like in ten years?