Book Club Discussion Questions and Guide for Ground Zero by Alan Gratz

1. Why does Brandon accompany his father to work? What do you learn about Brandon's character in the first chapter? How do you learn what day and year it is?
2. What do you learn about Reshmina when she first appears, including where and when her story takes place? How is her life like her brother's and how is it different? Why does Pasoon stop going to school and why does Reshmina want to continue and to learn English?
3. The concept of teamwork is important to both Brandon and Reshmina. Which family members do each of them consider part of their "team"? What feelings do they have when they are separated from those important people in their lives?
4. Why is Reshmina interested in the translator who accompanies the American soldiers to her village? What possibilities does the woman's work present to her? Discuss her thought: "And without a dream, without ambition, what point was there to living?" (p. 44). Compare Reshmina's dreams to her mother's and her grandmother's. Why does she decide to help the injured American soldier?
5. How does Brandon become separated from his father? In what ways does he come close to being trapped in the building after the plane hits? What changes for him when he is able to reach his father on a phone? Who are the people that assist Brandon in his escape? How does he form his bond with Richard?
6. How do Reshmina and Pasoon become separated on the hillside? In what ways does Reshmina put her life in danger when she goes after Pasoon? Discuss their different views of the problems in their country. What does Reshmina mean when she says to Pasoon, "You're like a worm who crawls into a snake's nest ..." (p. 161)?
7. Discuss the difference between Brandon's first and second phone call with his father. What has changed? What does his father want him to promise when he knows they can't be together (p. 185)?
8. What does Reshmina mean when she says, "... sometimes what was right and what was easy were two different things" (p. 195)? Compare her image of the fossil in amber and the Kochi way of life to what she now knows that she has to do.
9. Compare Brandon's experience in the underground mall to Reshmina leading the village people to the caves for safety. What makes each of those refuges unsafe? How do Brandon and Reshmina both lead their people to safety from underground? Discuss the significance of Taz's reference to the songs "We're Here Because We're Here" and "Auld Lang Syne" (p. 260).
10. At what point did you realize the connection between Brandon's story in 2001 and Reshmina's story in 2019? Why do you think the Afghans in her village had never heard about the fall of the Twin Towers? Does learning about that event help Reshmina understand why the Americans are in her country? What does she mean when she says, "... the rules are different for the United States" (p. 281)?

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