Anger Is a Gift Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

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For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Intersectional Representation in Young Adult Narratives and our BookBrowse Review of Anger Is a Gift.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

Discussion Questions

1. What emotions did you experience as you read Anger Is a Gift? When a scene made you angry, were you able to imagine how those feelings could become a gift? Which moments in the book made you feel hopeful?
2. Moss lives with panic attacks and other effects from the trauma of his father's violent death. How does he cope with his fears and flashbacks? How does his story help us understand the experience of being a survivor?
3. Esperanza's parents, Rebecca and Jeff Miller, are wealthy and white; their life in Piedmont is very different from that of Wanda and Moss Jeffries. The author writes, "Piedmont was full of people who liked to tell outsiders that they lived in Oakland. A certain amount of street cred came with that" (p. 143). How do these differences drive a wedge between Esperanza and Moss? How does the idea of "street cred" play into widening that gap?

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