Book One: Seeking A Common Threa

Questions For Readers and Book Clubs

1) Would you have worn the clothing found in the trunk? Would you feel differently if the clothing had once belonged to someone you had known or would you feel differently if the clothing had once belonged to someone you had never met?

2) Does your family have any traditions that have been passed down through the generations despite a tragedy.

3) Have you ever inherited or encountered an heirloom that prompted you to ask questions about an ancestor who had once owned it?

4) One of the themes of Seeking A Common Thread is that if children don't ask their parents about their past, they will never know about their family. Has your family ever been a part of an historic event that they do not talk about?

5) As a child, Susan dreamed that the trunk was a pirate's treasure chest. When Susan's family finally does open the trunk up, she discovers what was really inside. Before reading about what had been packed away in the trunk, what did you think was possibly inside?

6) At the end of the book, Susan still does not know what happened to her grandfather. She does not have the courage to ask her father. If you were in that situation, would you have the courage to ask your parent?

7) When Susan discovers the half completed embroidered tablecloth in the trunk, at first she sees no value in it. If you were in a similar situation, would you want to take the time and effort to finish such a project?

Why?

Why not?

8) When Florence Hobson sends a letter to Samuel's school, he is the only student to raise his hand to take up the offer for sponsorship for a visa to enter Ireland as a refugee. He had to wait one year before the British government approved the visa. If you had been in Samuel's situation, would you have had the courage to raise your hand? On the one hand, it would mean having someplace to go to live in freedom, on the other hand, you would have to leave the rest of your family behind. 

9) Lusia discovers that she cannot bear children, despite all the money she had spent on modern fertility treatments. Do you think that it was better that Lusia and Jakob were never able to have children because i it would have been highly likely that the child would have perished in the Holocaust? Or that it would have been better if Lusia had been able to have a child and celebrate the joys of motherhood even if it were for only for a shot period of time with the risk of losing the child to the Nazis?

10) Do you have any personal good luck rituals? Good luck charms? Do you have any good luck charms or rituals handed down to you by your family? Do you have any superstitions that were handed down in your family?