Cherie Bennet Zink Study Questions

1. What does it suggest about Beckyπs own social experience with friends, classmates, family, etc. that she envisions the social relations among the zebra herd, the sweat bees, Schlep etc. the way that she does? Point to specific characteristics and behaviors among her envisioned world that parallel or echo characteristics or behaviors in her real world.

2. Schlep is a particularly interesting figure in this novel. What role does he play in the story? What purpose does he serve for Becky? Zilch is equally important for other reasons. Talk about the purpose of having his character in the text.

3. The story of Becky Zaslow told in Zink is a fictionalized mix of several real accounts ≠ most especially of Kelly Weil who created the original Zink and of Alicia OπBrien who shared her experience with cancer with Bennet. What is the consequence of deciding to offer a narrative and to use pieces of different accounts rather than all one personπs story? The artwork in Zink was all done by ≥young people who are either currently battling, in remission from, or cured of cancer.≤ What is your reaction to the art work? How does it affect your reception of the text?

How much does it distract us wanting to know exactly what is a factual account and what is an imaginative interpretation? Would you have made the same decisions as the author?

4. Darlene tells Becky she hates liars. Becky realize that she hates being lied to as well. What kinds of things is Becky told (or not told) and why. Think about the motivations that prompt various characters here ≠ Mom, Dad, the nurse, Darlene, Mrs. Hudson, etc. How much should a child be told if they are dealing with a life-threatening illness? Think about this too in the context of issues raised by the article we read earlier: Jerome Groopman. "Dying Words: how Should Doctors Deliver Bad News" DD&B 3:13, 65-70

5. How does the character of Lee, Beckyπs little brother, contribute to the story? Does his response fit with the information on childrenπs grief covered in the chapter in The Last Dance? How does Leeπs reading of the journal at the end of the novel affect him? How do you think Beckyπs parents will react if he chooses to (as she suggests) read it eventually to them? How does he help us as readers to respond to the loss of Becky?