The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, HPV Vaccines and our BookBrowse Review of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

A Teacher's Guide is available at randomhouse.com and in this PDF. Not only does this have a wealth of information for educators but, towards the end, has information that might be of interest to general readers including resource links, a list of characters and a timeline.

Reader's Guide

1. On page xiii, Rebecca Skloot states "This is a work of nonfiction. No names have been changed, no characters invented, no events fabricated." Consider the process Skloot went through to verify dialogue, recreate scenes, and establish facts. Imagine trying to re-create scenes such as when Henrietta discovered her tumor (page 15). What does Skloot say on pages xiii–xiv and in the notes section (page 346) about how she did this?
2. One of Henrietta's relatives said to Skloot, "If you pretty up how people spoke and change the things they said, that's dishonest" (page xiii). Throughout, Skloot is true to the dialect in which people spoke to her: the Lackses speak in a heavy Southern accent, and Lengauer and Hsu speak as non-native English speakers. What impact did the decision to maintain speech authenticity have on the story?
3. As much as this book is about Henrietta Lacks, it is also about Deborah learning of the mother she barely knew, while also finding out the truth about her sister, Elsie. Imagine discovering similar information about one of your family members. How would you react? What questions would you ask?

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