Discussion Questions for Restart by Gordon Korman

As I’ve shared with you before, this year I started a middle grade book club for kids in our homeschool community. We began by choosing our books for the year with a book tasting. This September we met for our first discussion meeting about Gordon Korman’s Restart, the story of a notorious bully who falls off his roof, gets amnesia, and gets a chance to choose who he wants to be after he wakes up in the hospital.

Restart lent itself to a great discussion, so today I’m sharing with you some of the questions we talked our way through. Use these as a starting point for discussion after reading and enjoy all of the different directions your readers’ reactions and perspectives take you in.

Discussion Questions for Restart by Gordon Korman

1. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story through many narrators?
2. Who are the static characters in the story? Who are the dynamic characters?
3. What and who in Chase’s life help him to change for the better? Who doesn’t want Chase to change for the better? Why?
4. What would it feel like to have amnesia? What would it be like to discover that you’re a notorious bully? What would it be like to be a bullying victim?
5. What would it be like to be Joel? Shoshana? What did you think about Shoshana dumping the frozen yogurt on Chase’s head?
6. Why do you think Chase doesn’t immediately break off his friendship with Aaron and Bear?
7. When Chase joins the video club, is his desire for a second chance more important, or are Shoshana’s feelings as a victim more important?
8. What is the theme of the book? (What truth about human life does this story reveal?)