Reading Group Guide

Discussion Questions for Bad
n In her Author's Note, Jean Ferris explains that this book grew out of a series of interviews she did at the Girls' Rehabilitation
Facility in San Diego. The bedtime stories are an actual practice at the facility. In the book,
were you surprised at how important this was to the girls? Why do you think they enjoyed it so much? Dallas says, "The bedtime stories urged us on with poems and fables." [p. 178]
What are some of the titles of the bedtime readings? Why do you suppose the readers chose these particular stories?
n "Habit's a big part of the criminal life,
and habits are hard to break," says Connie.
[p. 148] What is her answer for this problem?
How is this related to what Shatasia says about the routine at the center: "There's way too many rules . . . but I still like to know what's happenin' next." [p. 39]
n Contrast the blame and disapproval of
Dallas's father toward her with "the staff's encouragement and goading [that] indicated we were worth salvaging." [p. 169] What is the effect of negative expectations from other people on a person's self-image? Find some other places in the book where we see this in action.
n "The struggle to get where they wanted us to go seemed too hard," thinks Dallas. "Only in Shatasia and in some of the books Kate had given me had I been able to see someone actually making that struggle, seen how painful the effort could be." [p. 178] How does she think reading can help her in the future?
On the last page of the novel is a list of the books Kate has given her. [p. 182] Have you read any of these? What books would you add that would help a person trying to find her or his way?
n When Dallas's father answers only "I'm your father" as a reason he might want to visit her, she says "I need a better answer." [p. 96]
What is the answer she wants, and why is it so hard for him to realize what it is? Why can't she bring herself to give him even the slightest clue to what she needs? What does each misunderstand about the other, and what good reasons do they have to be angry?
n As Dallas leaves the GRC for the group home, she looks at the guidebook to Texas that Nolan has given her and thinks, "I was going traveling and I needed to know the way." [p. 182] Does this mean she is actually going to Texas or something else about her
"journey" to find herself? Do you think it is likely that she will make it "on the outs"? How about Shatasia? Toozdae? Valencia? With all the help and good advice they have been given at GRC, why is it still so hard for all these girls to build new lives for themselves?
To Find Out More about Kids in Jail
Books:
Jack Gantos. Hole in My Life. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002.
Walter Dean Myers. Monster. New York:
HarperCollins, 1999.
Stanley "Tookie" Williams. Life in Prison.
Lancaster, Calif.: SeaStar / Chronicle Books,

2001.

Web sites:
The Beat Within: Writing and Art from the Inside.
www.thebeatwithin.org/news/
A weekly online newsletter outlet for the thoughts, stories, opinions, and ideas of incarcerated youth expressed in striking poetry and art.
"I'm Arrested. Now What?"
www.ocgov.com/Probation/eArrested/index.asp
A detailed step-by-step description of what happens to a minor in Orange County,
California, who commits a crime and is taken to jail to be booked.
Juvenile Hall Literacy Program
http://write2read.aclibrary.org/juvenilehall main.asp
A program of book talks and author visits to
Juvenile Hall in Alameda County, California,
has had dramatic results. Here the readers talk

about it.