| 1. | How did Yingtao feel when he came to America? |
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| 2. | How did Yingtao and Third Sister try to fit in? What did they do? |
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| 3. | It must have been funny to watch Yingtao jump up from his seat when the teacher came in. Can you think of anything we do in America that people in other countries might think funny? |
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| 4. | Do you have recent immigrants in your school? Have you heard of any problems they've had? |
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| 5. | Why didn't Mother and Father realize that Yingtao was never going to get better at playing the violin? Why didn't Yingtao tell his father he hated the violin? |
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| 6. | Do you play a musical instrument? Is it fun? Do you feel like Matthew and Eldest Brother? |
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| 7. | Do you think kids should have jobs to earn pocket money? Do you think it interferes with their school work? |
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| 8. | What was your favorite funny part? |
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| 9. | Have you ever seen parents yell or belittle or embarass their kids because they didn't do well enough at sports or some other activity? What did you think of that? |
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| 10. | Were you surprised when Mother hinted that people had been mean to her because she was Chinese? |
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| 11. | Did you find it interesting that Chinese belittle themselves when they are praised? Why do you think they do that? |
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| 12. | Yingtao had a "happy floating away" feeling when playing baseball. Have you ever had that feeling? What were you doing? |
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| 13. | Did you like the analogy that not being able to feel strongly about music is like never seeing a sunset, but only having people tell you about it? |
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