1. One of my aims with the Schellberg Cycle has been to explore how Germans could have ended up behaving as they did in the 1930s and in at the time of World War II. I have a lot of German friends, my age, and they're decent people. And so are their parents. Does this novel shed any light on that period for you?
2. Why do you think Bear is so different form his brother?
3. Why did Gisela and other German girls like her feel so proud of her BDM uniform?
4. What have you learnt about the BDM by reading this novel? Have you found out more since? Do you think if you had been living in Nazi German you would have like to join? Why or why not? Does it compare with our guiding and scouting movement?
5. What must it have been like for Gisela's father, having to leave the family home?
6. The Nazi society labelled both Gisela and her younger brother as impure, defective. Is this something we need to worry about today?
7. Apart from the main character, do you have a favourite character in the novel?
8. I first wrote this as a close third person narrative. I then switched to first person. Do you think it worked?
9. What do you make of Trudi? How does she change? What makes her change?
10. Eberhard (Bear) has about fifty pages to himself. Doe this change of point of view work?
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