Now You See It . . . Stories from Cokesville, PA [Paperback]

AChicago TribuneBest Book of the Year

Welcome to Cokesville, Pennsylvania. This is coal-and-steel country, the sort of place where an inch of soot on the windowsill means a regular paycheck--and two inches means a fat one. Where the only way to drown out the moaning of the cooling steel is to turn your radio up. And the best make-out spot in town is next to the burning slag heap. In seventeen captivating interlocking stories, Bathsheba Monk brings to life the fictional American town of Cokesville.

Discussion Questions

1. In Small Fry, Annie and Theresa are trying to find their professional wings. What real and/or imagined obstacles have kept them, so far, from realizing their place in the world? How does Theresa feel about the baby she is carrying?

2. Do you think Theodore, in Hocus Pocus, really intended to disappear in the magic act? Is money the real issue to Theodore? Felix loves Theodore, but does Theodore love Felix?

3. Discuss the motif of flying in Flying Lesson. Who manages to fly and who gets grounded?

4. The slam book that Annie is hiding in Slam Book is a way for teenagers to monitor and censor each others' behavior. How does the book motivate the story's young characters?

5. In Congratulations, Goldie Katowitz, Annie is a teenager trying to figure out what to do with her life, because it seems to her that the conventional options of job, college, and marriage, are either undesirable or out of her reach. What role does the sudden reappearance of her grandfather, Theodore, play in her life at this point?

6. What does Mrs. Szilborski discover about herself in Little Yellow Dogs ? Should Mrs. Wojik have known better than to tell Mrs. Szilborski about Mr. Szilborski's joke about being reincarnated as a dog? Does grief make you lose your inhibitions?

7. In Annie Kusiak's Meaning of Life, does Annie discover the meaning of her life? Is Annie's Babba wise or is she just clÓ