40 pages 1 hour read

Jenny Downham

Before I Die

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2007

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Essay Topics

1.

How and why do the items on Tessa’s list change over time? How do these changes reflect Tessa’s changing priorities, as her condition worsens and her relationships change and evolve? 

2.

What does Tessa appreciate about Zoey, as a friend? What are Zoey’s strengths and limitations, as a character? How does her pregnancy change her? How does it change Tessa and Zoey’s relationship?

3.

Describe Tessa’s reaction to driving through a thunderstorm without a license. What does she mean when she says that her death is “mine now” and that “it doesn’t feel so bad” (155)?