One of Us is Lying

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. Consider what you know about bullying, especially bullying that takes place after middle school. What are some of the ways in which teenagers are bullied? Where might this bullying often take place? What are the possible effects of bullying on a young adult’s development?

Teaching Suggestion: This question encourages students to think about how bullying is related to The Harmful Effects of Stereotyping and Gossip. In the novel, Simon uses his About That platform to expose his classmates’ lies and perpetuate gossip throughout Bayview High School. Although his platform had negative and consequential effects on his peers’ lives, the platform also had a harmful effect on his own life, as he was strongly disliked by his peers and eventually committed suicide as a result. Students may appreciate the chance to respond privately in a reading journal or in their notes; you may want to establish guidelines regarding what is appropriate for class discussion if you open the topic for responses aloud. The links below might be helpful for a general discussion about the various types of bullying and statistics related to bullying in the US.

• This list from Australia’s National Centre Against Bullying discusses the different types of bullying.
• PACER’s National Bullying Prevention Center shares an in-depth compilation of statistics regarding bullying in the US.

2. What components are important to keep a family functioning in healthy ways? How can families shape the decisions of young people?

Teaching Suggestion: This question encourages students to consider how The Impact of Family Relationships can either support or hurt a child’s future decisions. Each of the main characters’ families face conflicts and difficulties with relationships and communication (e.g., Nate’s alcoholic father and lack of a mother figure; Addy’s pressure from her mother to meet societal standards; Cooper’s pressure from his father to excel at baseball.); however, each character learns to navigate their own life by finding ways to function in their challenging family structure. Students might discuss together generally how the navigation of family dynamics is an important part in teenage life, especially as individuals mature. The following links provide information for students who may not be familiar with the terms “functional” and “dysfunctional,” as well as other terms regarding the concept of the family from a sociological point of view.

• This article from Familyeducation.com compares the differences between healthy and unhealthy family structures.
• Harvard Business Review’s “The Family Dynamics We Grew Up with Shape How We Work” explores The Impact of Family Relationships on an individual’s future work habits.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Do you believe that “honesty is the best policy?” Or would you say that “a white lie never hurt anyone?” Explain why your thinking aligns more with one adage than the other.

Teaching Suggestion: An overarching concept throughout the story is the necessity of lying as a mode of self-preservation. Each of the characters tells small lies to navigate their daily lives. With this question, students consider how they view lying in their own daily lives. Depending on students’ answers, this Personal Connection Prompt might link with all three themes of The Harmful Effects of Stereotyping and Gossip, The Value of Empathy and The Impact of Family Relationships. Many of the characters’ motivations to lie in the novel are related to each of the above three themes (e.g., spreading false rumors about different characters, Addy keeping the truth about her cheating from Jake so to spare his feelings, and Nate lying about his mother’s death.), so students might be asked to reflect on their answers to this prompt as they read the novel.