Every Soul a Star

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

If you had the opportunity to represent yourself in a painting, what would it look like? How might you express your values or identity in a work of art? Do you think those qualities might change as you grow older? 

Teaching Suggestion: This short answer question prepares the students to meet Jack, a character in the novel who expresses himself through his artwork and experiences an important creative maturation throughout the story. This also introduces them to the theme of The Need to Celebrate Identity, which recurs throughout.

• “How Artists Explore Identity” from the Museum of Modern Art examines three different works of art and how the artists expressed the identity of their subject. This resource also addresses The Inevitability of Change.

Short Activity  

What are the stars, planets, and constellations you could see in the night sky over your home tonight? Do some research to find out what you could see tonight and learn how they will change over the next days or weeks.

Teaching Suggestion: There are many sites and applications students can use to track the sky based on their location. Stellarium-web.org offers a free choice that works on a computer or phone. Students may choose to track the movement of the constellations during the study of Every Soul a Star, which would also exemplify the novel’s theme of The Inevitability of Change.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the text.

Have you ever looked into the sky and wondered how large the universe is? Or whether there are any other planets out there? How can observing the world around us, such as the objects in the night sky, capture our attention and change our perspective of our own lives?

Teaching Suggestion: This book explores astronomy’s ability to captivate us and draw together unlikely astronomy enthusiasts. The main characters in the book come from different home lives and normally would not get to know one another, but the humbling experience of appreciating astronomy brings them together. In addition, the book is populated by “eclipse chasers” from around the country and, indeed, the world who come to experience the special event and commemorate it in their own ways.

• “What is a Light Year??” from Conceptual Academy explains what a light year is and clearly shows the immense distances of space.