• If I were to ask you what you learned from I Hadn’t Meant to Tell You This, how would you respond? Does the author have an agendum that she addresses?
• Share with the group one passage that provoked you, saddened you, amused you, confused you…evoked some response from you. Tell the group why that passage impressed you.
• What separates Lena and Marie? What connects them?
• Some readers are critical of Woodson’s conclusion to the book—Lena and Dion running away from their home. Does the book offer positive answers to abused children’s questions?
• How do you respond to the question: “Why is it wrong to say nigger, but it is okay to say white trash?”
• What is your response to Marie’s mother? What does Marie learn from her mother?
• What does Marie learn from her father?
• Woodson quotes a stanza from Emily Dickinson’s poem #1147. The complete poem reads:

 

Weeds triumphant ranged

Strangers strolled and spelled

At the lone Orthography

Of the Elder Dead

 

Winds of Summer Fields

Recollect the way—

Instinct picking up the Key

Dropped by memory

 

Why do you think Woodson chose the first stanza as a prologue for her book?

 

• A critical reader may want to discuss Woodson’s use of imagery, e.g., bathing; her choice of names; the allusions to Thoreau and Whitman; the two forms of discourse, narrative and epistle; class issues, and race issues. Did any of these literary conventions capture your attention?
• How true to life is Marie’s relationship with her father? What is your response to her father?
• If you have a chance, read Woodson's new children's book illustrated by Earl B. Lewis, The Other Side.  It is a beautiful book, and the parallels to I Hadn't Meant To Tell You This are clear.
• Click here for a web site for Jacqueline Woodson.