Dark at the Roots - Reading Group Guide Questions

1.  How does Sarah use her acting ability to her advantage with her peers?  Her teachers?

2.  What is Sarah's relationship with her father like?  Does it change as she gets older?

3.  When is Sarah closest to her mother?  When does she distance herself from her?

4.  How do money worries affect Sarah and her family?  How does she deal with her embarrassment at having less than her classmates?  How does her mother deal with financial hardship?

5.  What strategies does Sarah use to make friends?  Do they always work out the way she intends?

6.  Why do you think Sarah is so eager to get her period?

7.  How does Sarah aspire beyond the circumstances of her life?  Does she ever manage to rise above her situation?  Do the people around her ever support her aspirations?  How do they discourage her?

8.  How does being dubbed "the family liar" shape Sarah's conception of herself?

9.  Sarah describes her mother both as religious and, frequently, as a "hippie."  What impressions do her mother's beliefs leave on Sarah?  What is Sarah's relationship with Catholic belief and practice like?

10.  How does Sarah's attitude toward boys with which she doesn't have a real relationship compare with her feelings about her boyfriends?

11.  While most of the book has a humorous tone, it ends on a more somber note.  Does the ending change your understanding of what has come before it?