Links for Little Bee

On June 16th we'll be discussing LITTLE BEE by Chris Cleave. Here are some links to check out, but only after you finish reading the book. Many of them contain spoilers so consider yourself warned.

• Chris is interviewed on The Early Show
• the book trailer for the UK version, entitled THE OTHER HAND
  
• discussion questions - we'll be using many of these at our meeting, and maybe some of the "book club enhancements" as well*
  
• an in-depth interview covering the background of the book, refugees, and many other topics
• and another interview with the author
  

And here is a video I found on Chris Cleave's website.



These links, along with the book itself, should give us ample fodder for discussion, don't you think?

* Here's an excerpt from this interview that I thought might be interesting to the club:

Do you have any tips you would give a book club to enhance their discussion of Little Bee?

Absolutely — first I’d suggest some books you could read in conjunction with it. The Grapes of Wrath is arguably Steinbeck’s greatest novel, and it’s also a refugee novel. It’s really asking the same question Little Bee is asking: how much help should people with relatively secure lives afford to those who have nothing, simply out of human solidarity? Then, for some non-fiction context, I’d recommend A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah, a veteran of the conflict in Sierra Leone. And Human Cargo: A Journey Among Refugees by Caroline Moorehead, an excellent and dedicated journalist.

Next I’d suggest some fun stuff you could try. Little Bee says, “I have noticed, in your country, I can say anything so long as I say that is the proverb in my country. Then people will nod their heads and look very serious”. If yours is the sort of book club that enjoys a glass of wine with your literature, then why not try making up some proverbs of your own. The more gravely you recite them, the wiser you will sound. On the same lines, why not get the members of your book club to rename each other according to their personality traits, the way Udo (Little Bee) and Nkiruka (Kindness) do in the novel. You could award prizes for the best efforts…