Reunion at Mossy Creek Readers' Guide

1. Reunions are a central theme of the book. What are your most painful or most joyous high school reunion memories? What makes the memories of high school so poignant? What unforgettable books did you read in high school?

2. Kids often interpret their guilt or innocence far more dramatically than reality demands. In Reunion At Mossy Creek, Rainey, Rob, and Hank were convinced they'd caused the fire that burned down the high school 20 years ago. Who is your favorite guilt-drive juvenile character in fiction? Your favorite guilt-driven adult character?

3. Reunion At Mossy Creek reveals the romantic tension between Mayor Ida Walker and young-enough-to-be-her-son Police Chief Amos Royden. Can you think of other novels that have explored the older women/younger man theme?

4. "The P Patch" is a story about a grieving widow who finds unlikely friends in the bawdy women of the Mossy Creek Garden Club. What is it about women's friendships that is so nurturing and so comforting to explore? Name other memorable stories about female friends.

5. Mossy Creek's oldest living resident, Eula Mae Whit, gets away with comments and attitudes that would make the populace shun any younger resident. Why do we thoroughly enjoy stories in which children, the elderly, or the outsiders of society give everyone else a ringing comeuppance?

6. Ed Brady Sr and his son, Ed Brady, Jr. have a poignant reunion of their own in the book. Does literature often overlook the emotional complexity of the father/son relationship?

7. Governor Ham Bigelow is a fun villain, so deliberately scheming that we can almost picture him twirling a handlebar mustache like the villains in old silent films. Are villains in literature more fun when they're so evil we can't picture them in real life, or so subtle they are disturbingly believable?