25 Compelling Book Club Discussion Questions for Any Book

Whether you’re preparing to lead your own book club for adults or facilitating one for students, these book club discussion question ideas will help guide and enrich the conversation.

To help uncover deeper insights and build better connections with fellow book club members, try not to rush through too many questions. Instead, choose a few questions that suit your book and group best and take time to discuss them in more detail. Focus on specific scenes in your book, connect themes across chapters, compare the book to other books you’ve all read, or consider how the story relates to your own experiences. Most importantly, create a space where everyone can meaningfully explore the book and conversation together.

These questions are part of Facing History’s book club guide, Centering Student Voice and Choice. Explore the guide for more resources to help you implement student book clubs.

Understanding the Characters

1. Who are the main characters in your book? 
2. How do they see themselves? How do others see them? 
3. What kinds of challenges do the main characters face? How do they deal with these challenges? What words of advice do you have for them? 
4. Why do the characters believe what they believe? Who or what shapes their beliefs?
5. How do the characters navigate the tension between their desire to fit in and their need to express their own unique identities? 
6. What kinds of power do characters in the book have? How does the amount of power each character has, or feels like they have, influence their choices and decision-making? 
7. Which character do you most relate to and why? Which character do you least relate to and why? 

Considering Characters’ Choices

1. What choices do characters make in the chapters you just read? What other choices could they have made?
2. What are all of the factors that impact the choices characters in your book have and how they make decisions? Do you think these factors reflect what it’s like in the world today? What makes you say that?
3. What are the spoken and unspoken rules of the place where your book takes place? Who makes the rules? How do the rules impact the main character of your book and the choices they have available to them? How are they similar to or different from the spoken and unspoken rules of your home, school, or community? 
4. Where do you see characters making the choice to act as perpetrators of injustice or unfairness? What factors motivate their behavior? 
5. Where do you see examples of characters making the choice to act as bystanders? What factors impact their decision not to take action? How might the situation in the book change if they make a different decision? 
6. Where do you see characters choosing to be upstanders? How do their choices and actions impact those around them? How do they feel about themselves?
7. Where do you see yourself judging characters for their decisions and actions? 

Thinking about Perspective

1. A character’s perspective is their attitude and beliefs about the world around them. In your book, whose perspectives does the reader get to see? How does knowing this perspective impact your understanding of what is happening in the story? 
2. For the character(s) whose perspective you get to see, what do they think and feel about their situation and the other characters in the book? Why do you think the author chose to develop this character’s perspective? 
3. Whose perspectives are missing from the story? Are there any characters who don’t have a voice or who are only seen through the eyes of other characters? What do you think they are thinking and feeling? Why do you think the author chose not to develop their perspective?
4. Why do you think the author chose to tell the story from the perspective they did? What other choices could the author have made? How would it have changed the story? 

Connecting the Book, the World, and Your Own Experiences

1. How does this book reflect or not reflect your own identity or lived experiences? 
2. How does this book help you understand someone else’s life experience? 
3. What social issues are explored in the book (i.e., racial injustice, gender discrimination, disability rights, voting rights, refugee crisis, LGBTQIA+ rights, gun violence, income inequality, housing and food insecurity, the ethics of science and technology, etc.)? What message does the book send about one or more of these issues? 
4. What does this book say about the world today? 
5. Why do you think the author wrote this book? 
6. How have you been changed or impacted by reading and discussing this book with your book club? 
7. What lessons can you take from this book into your own life? 

Want more book club tips? Explore Facing History’s complete guide to implementing student book clubs.