47 pages • 1 hour read
Janae MarksFrom the Desk of Zoe Washington
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Middle grade novels often feature situations that prompt new discoveries about self, others, or life in general for the protagonist. How does the internship at Ari’s Cakes befit one of these coming-of-age experiences for Zoe? What do her tasks there and the tasks or roles of others symbolize regarding growing up? Cite specific examples from three to four different work sessions at Ari’s Cakes in your response.
When Zoe receives Marcus’s second letter, she feels like a weight has lifted: “[…] it was like I’d been tensing my whole body for all of my twelve years, and now I could finally relax. At least a little bit” (60). Yet when she receives the next letter, in which Marcus claims he is innocent of the murder charge, Zoe becomes angry; she crumples the letter and discards it in her backpack. What is the rationale for each of these reactions? What later events in the plot might the messages and tone of these letters foreshadow?
Zoe and Trevor incite change in each other’s characters in both direct and indirect ways. What do Zoe and Trevor do or say to cause eventual change in the other?
Zoe is shocked to learn the statistics and figures that prove how frequently Black men suffer wrongful convictions. How does the author show in both subtle and direct ways other examples of racism with which Zoe must contend in her everyday life?
Mom prevents Zoe from receiving many of Marcus’s letters in the interest of protecting Zoe. Can you identify other instances in the novel in which characters try to protect or help others, but do so in misguided ways that inadvertently hurt others?
What character traits come across in Marcus’s letters and conversations that contradict how Zoe’s mother feels about him? What indirect characterization methods does the author use to convey these traits, since Zoe does not see him in person until the end of the story? Do the scenes in which Marcus does appear in person complement or juxtapose with his letters? Use specific details from the story in your response.
Zoe does not know why she takes Marcus’s letters on the trip to Harvard Square, but because she drops one, Professor Thomas is able to vouch for Marcus’s alibi. How does chance or luck play a role in that sequence of scenes or in other scenes in the book? How does the motif of luck/unluckiness play out over the course of the novel? Discuss your ideas with examples that represent the story’s beginning, middle, and end.
First-person narrators like Zoe convey characterization through voice. How does Zoe’s voice change over the course of the narrative, and why? Specifically, in what ways does her voice change when addressing Marcus in her first letter to him as compared to their first in-person meeting?
The title of the novel denotes the heading on Zoe’s stationery, the use of which she indicates makes her feel “a little more grown-up” and self-assured in her actions of writing and sending a letter to Marcus. What other objects or actions symbolize Zoe’s desire to feel more mature and confident, and/or to convey maturity to others? Discuss at least two possibilities with text details.
