- Why does the book have three different narrators? Why does Oskar write in a more "traditional" style, while his Grandparents write letters? How do the different styles come together to tell a complete story?
- How do the different characters in the novel cope with the loss of Thomas, Oskar's dad?
- What did you expect Oskar to find in the end? How did Oskar feel about this somewhat disappointing conclusion to a months-long search?
- Each narrator has survived, in some way or another, a terrorist attack. How are their experiences similar? How are they different?
- The book has been described as a story about a boy who loses his Dad on 9/11. But is it really about 9/11?
- Are the images and use of colored text a gimmick, or do they enhance the story? How would the story have been different without these visual tricks?
- Does Jonathan Safran Foer accurately capture the voice of nine-year-old Oskar, or does Oskar sound more like the twenty-eight-year-old author?
- Oskar wonders "If Dad were boiled down to one word, what would that word be?" (7.98) What one word would describe Oskar? What one word would describe you?