Girl at War Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Child Soldiers in the Yugoslavian Civil War and our BookBrowse Review of Girl at War.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. This is a book about war as seen through the eyes of a young person, first as a child and then as a young adult. What are the benefits and drawbacks of having a child or young adult narrator? Imagine Ana in her thirties. How might she tell the story differently?
2. Ana's father tells her the story of Stribor's Forest after a particularly difficult day for the family. Do you see echoes of the story's moral elsewhere in the book?
3. In what ways do storytelling or narrative become important for Ana?

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