adoration

= **The Adoration of Jenna Fox** = =Mary E. Pearson=

Discussion Questions C: Rebecca
Paragraphs D: Jenna

September 30th A:

Jenna Fox- Seventeen-year-old Jenna has been told that is her name. She has just woken up from a year-long coma, and she is still recovering from the terrible accident that caused it. Her parents show her home movies of her life, her memories, but she has no recollection. The way she tells her story is so riveting, it keeps you very interested. ** Clair (Mom)- ** Very protective of Jenna, has a hard time letting her out of the house. Tends to lie to Jenna about what really happened. ** Dad **- Made his fortune in biotechnology. Goes along with the lies. He isn’t really involved in Jenna’s life. ** Lily **- Jenna used to call her Nana. She shows a strong frustration with Jenna. Jenna thinks she doesn’t like her, but really Lily says she has no room in her life for Jenna. I’m not sure what I think about her, but I do know that something is going on between her and Jenna. ** Mr. Bender **- neighbor who advises Jenna to stay away from the house on the end.

Though Jenna is told this by her father, is this really the truth. Can time heal when all you have been told are lies?
====** 2. ** “Tell me. Tell me who you are. Tell me who I am.” Jenna says this in regards to her two friends Kara and Locke. Why does she trust them to tell her who she is when she can’t even rely on her own parents? ==== ====** 3. ** “I type in the name Jenna Fox. I am overwhelmed with the hits. There are thousands.” Can this be foreshadowing to who Jenna Fox really is? What really happened to her and can these hits really be looking for the real Jenna Fox? ==== ==== ** 4. ** “I walk to my bathroom mirror and tilt my face back. I run my fingertips up the length of my throat. I feel. I search. There is no scar.” Something doesn’t add up. What could have really happened to her scar? It is said in the beginning that time heals all wounds. Did the father mean it figuratively or literally? ==== ====** 5. ** “It’s been twenty-five days since I woke up. Eight days since I went to the mission. Six days since the new front walkway was laid. Five days since the plumbing fixtures were replaced. Three days since I last saw Mr. Bender through my window. Three days of rain and 4,287 cold beads of water beating against my windowpanes. I’m good at math after all.” This shows the second encounter of which she has been lied to. Why do you think her “family” is doing this to her? Is it for her own safety or are they escaping something from their old town in which they don’t want her to remember? ====

C:

** 5. ** What accident do you think Jenna had before she lost her memory?
D: In the group meeting today we talked about the book Jenna Fox and we each talked about quotes from the book that we had questions about and we discussed how we liked the book. Everyone likes the book so far, and we can't wait to read on. The book catches your interest and it uses a lot of words. We talked about how Jenna's family is lying to her about her accident and we discussed if we thought that was a good thing or a bad thing. Also we talked about the quote "Jenna, time will heal" which is what Jenna's dad said to her before he left. In the book Jenna watched a lot of videos of when she was younger, her parent's were hoping that would bring her memory back. Jenna was hoping she could just find out more about herself, she has no idea about the accident. In the book, Jenna finds out that she used to live somewhere else, but since she was ill her family bought a house closer to the hospital so she could live in a good place to recover. We talked about how Jenna's mom thought Mr. Bender was weird and she would always spy on him to see what he was up to. We talked about We each had questions about the book that we asked each other and we had a very productive meeting about the book and we can't wait to read the rest of the book. This book caught our attention, it can catch anyone's attention that reads the book and you will want to keep reading on. We are glad that we picked this book because it gives us something to talk about and it keeps us wondering what will happen next. = Friday, October 8th =

Group Leader A: Jenna Quotations B: Rebecca Discussion Questions C: Rebecca Summary D: Marisa

A.

The language this book uses is good. It's not inapropriate at all. The book is very easy to read, it's easy to keep up with and it's very catchy. It basically explains what the words mean in the book. Jenna Fox would say a word and than the definition would be on the page after it stating what the word meant because she would say "i just learned that word." This book is definitely conversational. Anyone that reads this book will have a lot to talk about, I know we all have a lot to talk about when we get together in class to talk about the book. I think the grade level this book is on is really for high schooler's and adults because its a book that you have to understand how the body works in order to understand why Jenna doesn't remember her past from the accident. Some people may not understand why Jenna's parents are lying to her and not telling her what happened but in an adults eyes you can see that they are only protecting their daughter, and high schooler's can understand that as well.

B:

1.
 * "Each day a rush of pieces, loosely connected, unimportant bits, snake through me. They click, click, click into my brain..."**

2.
 * "When your life has had few events to occupy it, it's amazing how a simple encounter can seem like an entire three-act play."**

3.
 * "The hot chocolate was tasteless. Just like my nutrients. I know you can forget a lot of things, but how can you forget taste?"**

4.
 * "Wrong! I stand corrected. You //are// one of us."**

5.
 * "...We should be blessed if we lived in the present always, and took advantage of every accident that befell us..."**

C:

1. What is the meaning behind the difference between "restoration" and "life" as Jenna said?

2. What does "Persona" means and who does Jenna refers "Persona" to?

3. What is revealed about Mr.Bender? What was the reason for it?

4. What does Dane say about Jenna? What do you think he means?

5. What do you think will happen after Jenna remember her accident?

D: Rebecca, Jenna, and I came to the conclusion that two-fifths of the way into the book was not very interesting. Most books have a point where in order for a book to make the appropriate length, it must have some chapters of excessive explanation. For the Adoration of Jenna Fox, the story mostly gave details about Jenna’s school life and her meeting with Dane at the Mission. Further examining the book, we came to a point where we questioned the difference between restoration and life. For Jenna, her life is restoration – for now at least. It is all about gaining the memories that are not long lost and forgotten. She has to go back and re-live her life in order to move forward. While doing this, Jenna still is in constant search of her persona- who she was, who she wants to be, and how she can achieve this. The story led to many eye opening conclusions about Mr. Bender. No longer do we think he is an average neighbor. It turns out he was using his friends name who really is a deceased 84-year old man. It turns out that he took this mans name because he didn’t want to be found. He hasn’t even talked to his parents in years. Also, from what Dane told us about how Jenna walks differently, we came to a profound conclusion. If Jenna has fake legs like Allys, then the incident with the puddle was no accident that triggered her memory. What if her legs were robotic much like the new Jenna? Could her sudden trigger of memory be due to a short circuit? This makes sense because in a way everyone is programming her to remember certain incidents – like watching the home movies for example. My group and I can’t wait to read more in attempts to find out if our assumptions are in fact true.

Summary: Rebecca
A:  The mood and tone of this book is both curious and frustrating. Jenna is in constant question about why her parents are keeping so many secrets from her. Above all, they are trying to control her, which would make the overriding tone frustrating. Imagine if your parents programmed you in order for you to be the perfect child. How would you feel? We see this in the scene where Jenna is in the kitchen with her mother. Jenna lined up plates along the edge of the table and started flipping them onto the floor. She is told to go to her room but has to will herself not to listen. Her fury comes out when she calls both her mother and father out for programming her to to the right thing and listen to commands. B: ** 1. ** It is amazing what we can do with technology. Do you think a person can actually survive without organs? ** 2. ** How would you feel if you found out you were programmed for your own protection, would you still feel anger towards your family? ** 3 ** . Can parents actually be arrested for keeping their daughter alive even if it goes to such ectremities? ** 4. ** How is Jenna's life different from the life of a computer? Is there a definitive line? ** 5. ** Why didn't Jenna say anything to her parents about the latest discovery of her parents closet? Do you think she later intends to use it for research on her history? C: **1) I glare at them both. "How dare you!" I say. "How dare you play with my brain! " Jenna gets upset that her parents have been playing with her mind and that they didn't tell her what happened to her. She yells at them when she finds out about everything. ** **2) "How dare you pretend with me that I'm normal! How dare you program me!"- Jenna did not like the fact that her parents were programming her to believe that everything was fine and normal when nothing was fine, that Jenna had to learn her whole life over and she doesn't know anything about it.** **3) "When will you admit that you made a mistake?"- Jenna asks this question because she knows that her parents made a big mistake not telling her what happened and why she can't remember half her life. She is upset about them keeping the secret from her and she wants them to know that they made a mistake and wants them to admit it.** **4) "But it is the most important ten percent. Do you hear me? The most important."- When Jenna finds out about the accident she realizes that they could only save 10 percent of her brain, and she got upset and her mother says that it is the most important 10 percent of her brain. She says this to Jenna to make her feel better about the situation even though she probably won't.** **5) "How much is me?" Jenna is concerned about finding everything out at once, and she wants to know how much of her brain is her, how different is she now then she was back then before the accident.** D:
 * This week, we were able to read half way through the novel. **
 * We got to find out what Jenna really is, as well as the accident. Before these were revealed, Marisa and I had guessed that Jenna might not be a human; her parents might have transfered her mind into a robot. **We were partially right because when Jenna had an accident with fire, her father had to remove all the organs in her body in order to save her. She becomes furious and constantly question why her parents had to keep it a secret from her.


 * Many of the quotes shows Jenna's anger, and we agreed with Jenna that we would rather die than become a illegal robot filled with Bio Gel. **
 * Although Jenna's parents kept repeating "Any parents would have done the same thing", it is the most cruel thing to do to a child, because she is not a human anymore and has to live with that fact. **

= October 22, Friday = Discussion Leader: Jenna Quotes: Marisa Questions: Rebecca Summary: Jenna A: Most of the book Is taken place in Jenna's house. Jenna lives in a house with a large property. The house isn't in that great of shape but the property is nice. She also has a neighbor with large property. Some images that you can picture is Jenna's emotions and feelings, what she is thinking when her parents tell her about her tragic past. Another image is when Jenna is walking outside to her neighbor and she explains her house and the yard, and she explains what her neighbor is doing with the flowers and plants. Another one that you can see is the computer as Jenna is looking through it, or the videos that Jenna is watching. These images represent different things in her accident. Jenna is living in this new not so great house because her parents moved there to be closer to the hospital for Jenna. You can picture Jenna's face and emotion when they tell her about the accident and how her best friend died. Her neighbor isn't really part of her accident, but he is just a friendly face and says hello to her, and shows her he isn't weird he is just an artist and takes pictures of his work. The image you can picture when Jenna is looking through the computer means she is interested in what's going on, and she feels like her parents are hiding something from her and she wants to know more about it. The videos Jenna is watching shows her in her years before her accident, and you can see her face kind of watching the TV and realizing that she doesn't remember anything about the video, to her it's just a little girl running around at a birthday party, she can hear her parents saying that's her but she just doesn't remember. I think the author uses these images to show different things leading up to the next event in the story. Like music in the back of a movie, when you hear suspicious movie something bad or scary is going to happen. So when you see Jenna going to her neighbor's house when her mom told her not to leave and not to talk to the neighbor cause he seems weird, you can feel like something is going to happen, and Jenna was on her way over to see what her neighbor was doing and she forgot where she was and she felt lost. I think the author uses the images to lead up to the next part in the book.
 * If this novel were to be made into a movie, it would have a very dark mood, because the overall tone of the book is very frustrating and enigmatic. Also, since it is first-person's point of view, the movie might become dull and boring when Jenna is constantly questioning about her identity and her past life. **
 * 1) “Sixteen years of thought trapped in circuitry. A spinning glass ball. Shattering inward, moment by airless moment. But everyone says, //Don’t tell.// How can I not? (166) A strong suggestion not to tell who that real Jenna was, she starts to question how she is supposed to keep such a big thing a secret. This is in reference about Jenna not telling her friend Allys why she is so artificial.
 * 2) “I ache for that red skirt now. And I ache for the day I bought it with Kara” (173). This quote goes along with the human emotion of wanting something you can’t have. If Jenna is so artificial, then she really shouldn’t be feeling all of these emotions.
 * 3) “’That’s one thing Mother and Father didn’t plan on—the unknown. There’s a lot I haven’t told them”’ (184). Jenna often gets mad at her parents for keeping secrets. Why is it okay for her to keep things from them? Isn’t it the same thing?
 * 4) “The dictionary says my identity should be all about being separate or distinct, and yet it feels like it is so wrapped up in others” (190). Everyone is so concerned about finding their identity; Jenna including. If she would just let things happen then her identity will come with it.
 * 5) “I have to go back. Eventually. But not until I understand one thing. Which is the real me? The one in the closet or the one here on the forest floor? (197) Can a computer really control a person’s life? Why would Jenna even question this?

C

1. On pages 156, why does Jenna play the "game" about the key?

2. What makes a person a "monster"? Do you think Jenna is a "monster"? What about Ethan?

3. Do you think Allys is similar to Jenna? How are they similar to each other?

4. On page 178, What does Jenna find out about the accident? What happened to Kara and Locke?

5. What is uploaded in the "computer"?

D: This week our group discussed many different questions and quotes about the book. We had really good discussions and we learned how we each think about the book in our own ways of reading it. It was a good discussion and we went over the accident and how Jenna found out that she killed her best friend because she was speeding. The quotes used show Jenna's emotions, and even though she isn't human, you can just picture and feel what she is feeling as you are reading along. The quotes show how she knows she isn't human now, and how she can't have everything she wants and she can't do everything she wants. We talked about how Jenna doesn't know who she is, and how she is trying to find herself. We talked about how she is upset because of her parents keeping such big secrets from her, how she killed her best friend, how she is made of bio gel, and how she isn't human and how Jenna doesn't know whats right now, lying, or telling the truth? Keeping secrets from her parents like they did to her, or just telling them? How can a computer control someone? Jenna thinks about all this stuff and Marisa said, "How could someone who isn't human be feeling these emotions?" We talked about our feelings on the question "do you think Jenna is a monster" We don't think she is a monster, she just has anger bottled up inside from being told lies and having such big secrets about her life being kept among their selves. We had a really good book club this week, we had good questions and good quotes which lead us to a great discussion. There was a lot to talk about this week, finding out that Jenna killed her best friend, and Jenna finding out all this information and asking so many questions and showing emotion. It was really good this week and i can't wait till next week when we come back to talk about the ending of the book. I'm sure it's going to be really exciting.

Summary: Marisa
A.

The Adoration of Jenna Fox was a thrilling novel that constantly invoked the readers' curiosity until the end. It is written as a first-person point of view, which makes the story even more interesting when Jenna is trying to find out about her true identity. It attracts the readers as Jenna remembers more things about herself and the accident. The Adoration of Jenna Fox is a fairly easy book, but also a little confusing in some parts. However, I highly recommend this book to peers because I myself enjoyed reading through the end. It is not a book that you would just stop reading in the half way; In fact, I believe it should be considered to be in the school's curriculum.

B B  1)" A bit for someone here. A bit there. And sometimes they don't add up to anything whole. But you are so busy dancing. Delivering. You don't have time to notice.Or are afraid to notice. And then one day you have to look. And it's true. All of your pieces fill up other people's holes. But they don't fill your own."

2)"…a desperation to stay on the pedestal”.

3)" The word sends a shockwave through the room. For moment neither one speaks, stunned by the outing of their dirty secret."

4) "The bill is the Medical Access Act, which will put all medical decisions and choices back into the hands of physician and patient. It will cut FSEB entirely out of the process."

5) "What about my soul, Father?"

C 1. What happened in the accident? Where is the "dark place"?

2. What do they find out about Allys? What do her parents decide to do?

3. Why does Jenna let the "backups" go?

4. Who is Kayla?

5. Overall, did you enjoy the book? Would you recommend it? Why or why not?

D:

This last week for book club was bitter sweet. We finished __The Adoration of Jenna Fox__, which we all agreed was an amazing book. Towards the last few pages, we got a shock that we weren’t expecting. Allys ended up getting sick and all of her organs starting shutting down. To our surprise, Allys told her parents about Jenna and her parents instead of going to the police, wanted to same thing for Allys. They were able to save her and Jenna had a friend 200 years later. To everyone’s surprise, Jenna and Allys lived beyond the 200 years expected.

We found out that Jenna really didn’t drive the car. Jenna gave Kara the keys and unfortunately no one will ever find out the real story. We all loved how every piece from the story tied together at the end. She even was able to have kids. Rebecca, Jenna, and I were relieved to find out that eventually Kara and Lock were set free. Jenna unplugged their computers and tossed the memory disk into the pond outside her window.

To our surprise, Jenna was able to have a child and married ethan. Rebecca and I really enjoyed the book and would recommend this to anyone. It is a very easy and well thought out book. We did however; think that it could be more supernatural. There wasn’t really a lot of it, but for the most part it was all about Jenna living without organs, and living over 208 years.

The bad part about this book is that Jenna and Allys are forever stuck in her teenage body, despite her old age.