Friday, May 16, 2014

High School Reading Club Today:
Room by Emma Donoghue



The book for our final meeting of the year is Room,
by Irish author Emma Donoghue.

Short author bio (from her website):

Born in Dublin in 1969, Emma Donoghue is a writer of contemporary and historical fiction whose novels include the bestselling Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter, Landing, Life Mask, Hood, and Stirfry. Her story collections are The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits, Kissing the Witch, and Touchy Subjects. She also writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She lives in London, Ontario, with her partner and their two small children.


Official publisher's book trailer -



The publisher's Reading Group Guide questions are here -

Short interview with Emma Donoghue:



Another interview with the author on theinterviewonline.com

More questions (in Janet Maslin's New York Times review)


  • Was the world inside Room somehow safer than the world outside?
  • Will it be damaging for Jack to have to share his mother with new people in her life—or with the people she left behind?
  •  Will Ma still be content to do nothing but interact with her frisky son?
  • Is it harder to choose freely from a whole bowl of lollipops than to have no choice at all?

About the Fritzl case (Donoghue's direct inspiration)

More to think about - quotes from books Ma reads to Jack
--> why this reading list for Room? how do these books relate, illuminate or expand the story?


Click the drawing for an interactive model of Jack's Room.


Inspiration & research for the book

Author Aimee Bender's New York Times Sunday Book Review 

Emma Donoghue talks about writing Room (in The Guardian)

New Yorker chat with the author (transcript) -

Author Q&A with readers of Real Simple

You can even download Jack's handwriting as a font for your computer!


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