OneSister'sSongBookClubGuide

Book Club Discussion Guide: One Sister’s Song by Karen DeGroot Carter

1) One Sister’s Song alternates between the past and the present and is told from the points of view of different characters. Did this narrative format work for you? Were there particular narrators you found more compelling than others and why? Were there any instances in which a character’s “voice” failed to ring true for you?

2) A sense of belonging or not belonging in various places troubles Audrey throughout the story. What issues contribute to her insecurities about belonging? What role does her sister’s house play in making Audrey feel secure or insecure?

3) One Sister’s Song involves contemporary issues of prejudice. How do different characters cope with or consider the prejudice they encounter or witness? Does this book convince you prejudice continues to exist in subtle forms, or do you think it’s limited to extreme cases such as the scene with the racist police officer, or the department store scene in which Julian is accused of stealing?

4) How does Yvonne provide generational context to the issue of prejudice? How has life changed for biracial families from Yvonne’s generation to Audrey’s generation? How has it remained the same?

5) What roles do Margaret and Bridgit play in the story’s portrayal of contemporary prejudice? What do these two women reveal about changes (or lack of changes) in generational attitudes toward non-traditional relationships and families? Compare and contrast these two women with Aunt Letty and George in Nashville .

6) Grief recovery and single parenthood are also explored in this book. Which scenes make Audrey’s struggle with grief recovery and/or single parenthood most evident? When do her reactions, decisions, and actions become productive rather than destructive, and why do they change?

7) Describe Audrey’s relationship with Julian. How does Pritch’s arrival complicate that relationship, and how does Pritch’s arrival help it?

8) Pritch and Julian have an unusual father-son relationship that develops throughout the story. Describe how they consider each other at first and how and why their attitudes toward each other eventually change. What do they teach each other throughout the process?

9) Do you consider the world in which Audrey lives to be just or unjust, contrived or realistic? How does it compare to the world in which Nell Morris lived? How realistic is Nell Morris, and the fugitive who for a while existed only in Audrey’s dreams? Does the “meeting” of these two women—Nell Morris and the fugitive—as described in the journal seem realistic and likely? What do you think about Nell Morris’ writings regarding other fugitives and the steps she and her husband took to help them? What do these writings reveal about the “travelers” on the Underground Railroad?

10)Describe Audrey’s relationship with her sister, Laura. Describe how the two sisters differed in their attitudes toward life and race, and what might have influenced their individual outlooks. Discuss the influence Laura ultimately has on her sister, and the struggle Audrey endures to come to terms with her sister’s impact on her life.

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