Excerpted from An Eighth of August by Dawn Turner Trice.
Copyright © 2002 by Dawn Turner Trice. Excerpted by permission
of Anchor, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without
permission in writing from the publisher. 1) For discussion of
An Eighth of August: An Eight of August presents the same events
from several different points of view. Which narrator most
closely represents, if any, the voice of the author? Did your
opinions of the characters change as you saw them through
different eyes? Did you trust their own words and perceptions
more than the portraits others painted of them? 2) Sweet Alma is
a central character in the book, despite the fact that she isn't
present in 1986. Drawing on the impressions the other characters
offer, how would you describe her? Do you feel sympathy for her
or do you think she is acting selfishly by not returning to
Halley's Landing? 3) What motivated Flossie's decision to send
Simon and Sweet Alma to S