Between the Lines
For Ages: 12 and up
- reading group guide
- bestseller
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The #1 New York Times bestseller filled with romance, adventure, and humor, from Jodi Picoult and her teenage daughter.
What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?
Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.
And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.
Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.
What happens when happily ever after…isn’t?
Delilah is a bit of a loner who prefers spending her time in the school library with her head in a book—one book in particular. Between the Lines may be a fairy tale, but it feels real. Prince Oliver is brave, adventurous, and loving. He really speaks to Delilah.
And then one day Oliver actually speaks to her. Turns out, Oliver is more than a one-dimensional storybook prince. He’s a restless teen who feels trapped by his literary existence and hates that his entire life is predetermined. He’s sure there’s more for him out there in the real world, and Delilah might just be his key to freedom.
Delilah and Oliver work together to attempt to get Oliver out of his book, a challenging task that forces them to examine their perceptions of fate, the world, and their places in it. And as their attraction to each other grows along the way, a romance blossoms that is anything but a fairy tale.
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Book details:
- EMILY BESTLER BOOKS/ATRIA/SIMON PULSE |
- 368 pages |
- ISBN 9781451635812 |
- June 2013 |
- Grades 7 and up
$14.99 List Price
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Praise
“A compulsively readable charmer. The teen dialogue and interior monologues feel authentic, while Picoult’s practiced hand balances humor with larger issues such as abandonment, hope, and existential quandaries related to fate and human nature. Both silhouette and pencil drawings abound; characters climb in and around the text to excellent effect. Younger readers and their parents will appreciate the gentle, wholesome romance, with nary a shred of paranormal action. The tender, positive tone and effective pacing that builds to a satisfying finish will inspire readers to pass the book to a friend--or reread it themselves.”
– Booklist
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“A compulsively readable charmer. The teen dialogue and interior monologues feel authentic, while Picoult’s practiced hand balances humor with larger issues such as abandonment, hope, and existential quandaries related to fate and human nature. Both silhouette and pencil drawings abound; characters climb in and around the text to excellent effect. Younger readers and their parents will appreciate the gentle, wholesome romance, with nary a shred of paranormal action. The tender, positive tone and effective pacing that builds to a satisfying finish will inspire readers to pass the book to a friend--or reread it themselves.”– Booklist
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“A clever YA romance about the magical relationship between a loner and her fictional Prince Charming. Elements from Picoult’s other novels--alternating character viewpoints with distinguishing fonts, snappy chapter endings--are present, and the story is peppered with pop culture references to The Hunger Games, the Kindle Fire, and the X-Men, as well as comic relief in the form of characters like a talking horse that thinks it has a weight problem. Readers...will be swept up by the romantic premise.”– Publishers Weekly
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“Picoult and her coauthor daughter deliver an enjoyable, metafictive twist on the traditional teen-romance novel.... Book lovers in particular are likely to get a kick out of the blurring of the lines between character and reader, fact and fiction.... Fizzy fairy-tale fun.”– Kirkus Reviews
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“Picoult and her daughter, Van Leer, have created a multilayered universe where what is real is in the eye of the beholder.”– VOYA
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“Engagingly written...a fun romp that fans of both fairy tales and teen romance will enjoy.”– Shelf Awareness for Readers
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“Between the Lines is a romance between a girl and a boy, but even more, it’s a love letter to the visceral bond between a reader and a musty, beloved book.... The fictional Between the Lines is funny and unexpected...and it’s fascinating to watch the authors address the problem of what it would be like to live not just in a story, but in a physical book...”– The Washington Post
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“Between the Lines is a romance between a girl and a boy, but even more, it’s a love letter to the visceral bond between a reader and a musty, beloved book.... The fictional Between the Lines is funny and unexpected...and it’s fascinating to watch the authors address the problem of what it would be like to live not just in a story, but in a physical book...”– The Washington Post
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“An exceedingly clever concept that would be challenging to pull off, if not for the deep understanding of character, plot and pacing provided by Picoult... Conceptually, Between the Lines is reminiscent of the Toy Story movies... An exploration of the nature of escapism that asks whether reality is any more real than make-believe, Between the Lines will delight readers of all ages whose imaginations willfully blur that distinction.”
Read an Excerpt
OLIVER
JUST SO YOU KNOW, WHEN THEY SAY “ONCE UPON a time”… they’re lying.
It’s not once upon a time. It’s not even twice upon a time. It’s hundreds of times, over and over, every time someone opens up the pages of this dusty old book.
“Oliver,” my best friend says. “Checkmate.”
I follow Frump’s gaze and stare down at the chessboard, which isn’t really a chessboard at all. It’s just squares scratched onto the sand of Everafter Beach, and a bunch of accommodating fairies who don’t mind acting as pawns and... see more
Delilah
I’M WEIRD.
Everyone says so. I suppose it’s because while other fifteen-year-olds are talking about the best lip gloss and which movie star is hotter, I would rather be curled up with a book. Seriously—have you been to a high school lately? Why would anyone sane want to interact with Cro-Magnon hockey players, or run the gauntlet of mean girls who lounge against the lockers like the fashion police, passing judgment on my faded high-top sneakers and thrift-store sweaters? No thanks; I’d much rather pretend I’m somewhere else, and any time I open the pages of a book, that... see more
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- Book Cover Image (jpg): Between the Lines
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Book Reviews
Reading Group Guide
Reading Group Guide to
Between the Lines
by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer
Prereading Question:
If you could choose living in a predictable world, where you knew the outcome of every event, would you choose it, and why?
Discussion Questions:
Who is Prince Oliver and why is he unhappy? What is his character flaw and how does it impact his life and world?
Why does Prince Oliver set out to rescue Seraphima, and how does he compensate for his character flaw?
Are Prince Oliver and Seraphima a good match? Why or why not? How is she unlike Prince Oliver?
Why does Delilah read the fairy tale repeatedly? How is her world different from Prince Oliver’s?
How does the reader learn that Prince Oliver knows there is a world “beyond the fairy tale”? How does he first come to know about this outside world?
Why does Prince Oliver want out of the fairy tale? How does he get the attention of Delilah, and what is her initial response?
Delilah and Prince Oliver develop romantic feelings for each other. Why do you think they are attracted to one another? What commonalities draw them together? What differences?
Why does Prince Oliver attempt to remove the spider from the story? What happens when the spider enters Delilah’s world?
Identify the following fairy tale characters and explain how they are alike, or differ see more
Between the Lines
by Jodi Picoult and Samantha van Leer
Prereading Question:
If you could choose living in a predictable world, where you knew the outcome of every event, would you choose it, and why?
Discussion Questions:
Who is Prince Oliver and why is he unhappy? What is his character flaw and how does it impact his life and world?
Why does Prince Oliver set out to rescue Seraphima, and how does he compensate for his character flaw?
Are Prince Oliver and Seraphima a good match? Why or why not? How is she unlike Prince Oliver?
Why does Delilah read the fairy tale repeatedly? How is her world different from Prince Oliver’s?
How does the reader learn that Prince Oliver knows there is a world “beyond the fairy tale”? How does he first come to know about this outside world?
Why does Prince Oliver want out of the fairy tale? How does he get the attention of Delilah, and what is her initial response?
Delilah and Prince Oliver develop romantic feelings for each other. Why do you think they are attracted to one another? What commonalities draw them together? What differences?
Why does Prince Oliver attempt to remove the spider from the story? What happens when the spider enters Delilah’s world?
Identify the following fairy tale characters and explain how they are alike, or differ see more
Video
Behind the Scenes of BETWEEN THE LINES with Jodi Picoult
Jodi Picoult discusses BETWEEN THE LINES, her first YA collaboration with her daughter Samantha van Leer.
Behind the Scenes of BETWEEN THE LINES with Jodi Picoult
Author Jodi Picoult Reveals Her Favorite TV show
