The Art of Secrets (19 page)

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

1. Saba Khan's Pakistani parents hold traditional beliefs—for example, fifteen-year-old Saba has to fight to play tennis, because her father objects to her wearing shorts in public. On
page 123
, Steve Davinski tells his friends that Saba has a whole extra set of rules to live by, like “Fit in with two cultures,” “Speak two languages fluently,” and “Try to look innocent.” Do any members of your family or any of your friends have to fit in with more than one culture or speak more than one language? What are the benefits and challenges of being a dual-culture family?

2. On
page 121
, Steve says, “I've been with girls for a lot of reasons . . . And who are we kidding? Girls date me for reasons of their own, too.” Describe some of the reasons Saba and Steve embark on a romantic relationship. Do they both get what they want?

3. Why do you think the author chose to write the story from multiple points of view? How would the novel have been different if only one person told the whole story—for example, Saba or Kevin Spoon or even one of the teachers?

4. The artist Henry Darger is known as an “outsider artist” because he created art independently, outside the known cultural establishment. The Art of Secrets is teeming with “outsiders”—Saba Khan with her Pakistani roots; Javier Conejera, the exchange student from Spain; Ariel Ames, the “new” English teacher who hasn't yet been accepted even after three years; Jean Delacroix, the gay art teacher who works solo; and newcomers Kendra and Kevin Spoon, who don't quite fit in with the “legacy” students at Highsmith School. Do all the outsiders in the book long to be insiders? Is anyone happy being an outsider? Are there any true insiders in the story?

5. Steve Davinski struggles to complete his college application essay because he isn't sure what to write. Ultimately, we learn, he writes about his recent experiences with Saba and Javier. How did you feel about the essay? Did it change your opinion of Steve?

6. Almost everyone in the story talks to the Chicago Tribune reporter at some point to tell him what “really” happened. On
page 109
, the principal even tries to feed the reporter the headline “We're all victims now.” Based on the resulting Tribune articles, would you say the reporter was successfully manipulated by the principal and others?

7. When you first found out the Darger paintings were stolen, was there anyone you immediately suspected? If so, what were some clues that made you suspicious of that person? Did your mind ever change about who the thief might be? Were you surprised by the ending? Why or why not?

8. On
page 173
, Kevin Spoon says, “It's naïve to think that people go around helping people without some motivation, without expecting something in return, right?” Do you think it's true that people only help others if there's some selfish purpose behind it? Can you think of any examples in
The Art of Secrets
where people helped people just out of kindness?

9. Many of the characters—including Javier, Jean Delacroix, and Ariel Ames—make choices that may have surprised you. In each case, was the character justified in doing what he or she did?

10. Henry Darger's surreal paintings inspire wildly different reactions from this cast of characters. Saba finds them strange, violent, and ugly (
page 98
); Steve Davinski calls them “girly watercolor paintings” (
page 78
); and Kevin Spoon says he can relate to the images of fierce young kids who bravely take on grown-ups and defeat them (
page 233
). Javier says they “tell us a story of innocence and darkness” (
page 133
). Take a moment to do an online image search on the art of Henry Darger. What are your impressions of this outsider artist's work?

11. Which character or characters do you hold responsible for the good things and bad things that Saba has experienced this year? Do you agree with Saba's theory of what truly happened? Why or why not?

Visit
www.algonquinyoungreaders.com/book/the-art-of-secrets/
to read James's personal essay, Q&A, and more.

Reader's Guide by Karin Snelson

Published by

ALGONQUIN YOUNG READERS

an imprint of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Post Office Box 2225

Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of

WORKMAN PUBLISHING

225 Varick Street

New York, New York 10014

© 2014 by James Klise.

All rights reserved.

Definition of “outsider art” used with permission from Intuit: The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art.

Excerpt reprinted with permission of Scribner Publishing Group from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Copyright © 1925 by Charles Scribner's Sons. Copyright renewed © 1953 by Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan.

eISBN 978-1-61620-403-7