Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for The Brightwood Code by Monica Hesse

1. What kinds of coded language do characters use throughout the book? How do people obscure the truth, intentionally or subconsciously?
2. Edda slowly reveals memories of her time in France. How do echoes of her past surface in the present?
3. Edda's father insists that "warfare is a man's story about men's business and men's strife" (p. 95), while Mae tells her that "war looks different for women" (p. 306). How does Edda's experience of the war parallel that of the soldiers whose stories she uncovers? How does it diverge?
4. Do you think people process physical pain differently than emotional pain? How does society treat those two struggles differently? What does it mean to be a survivor?
5. Throughout the book, Edda feels the urgency of time, keeping track of precious seconds. How do we perceive time? Why do small pieces of time loom large in memory?
6. In her investigation, Edda encounters the families of soldiers from different backgrounds. What role does class play in wartime?
7. What does forgiveness look like? Can you achieve true resolution when you've wronged someone?
8. Eliza remarks that "you expect that as time passes grief will get smaller, but grief doesn't get smaller. It's just that life gets bigger" (p. 267). What does this mean to you? How do different characters process grief?
9. Which characters did you most strongly relate to? Why?
10. What can we learn from history, especially from stories of war and its aftereffects? Why is it important to study the past?

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.