About the Book

Tom is a teenager. He feels like an outcast. He can't find the place where he belongs.  He's not sure who he is — or what he is. Tom is a lot like you. But he's also very different. Tom has been a part of the elfin Tribe living on the common all his life.  He's hated the demons who live in the city. Yet, Tom fears that he is becoming more and more like them. 

Sally Prue's adventure/fantasy offers beautiful language to explore, a fascinating imagined world to get to know, lots of action, and themes that are both very personal and universal. You'll have a lot to talk about.

Discussion Points

Setting

1. The houses of the demons were square. Everywhere was the same, relentlessly. Even their plants were fenced and clipped—frost-stiff, sterile and lonely.  (Page 17).  This is how Tom sees the demon city. In fact it sounds like a contemporary residential neighborhood. Write a description of the demon city from a demon's point of view. How does it compare to the town you live in?

2. Discuss and compare the two societies, demon and Tribe, depicted in the novel with respect to: habitat, family, home, relationships, and values.

Character

1. When Anna talks about her mother, father, and stepbrother, Tom's stomach turns. Anna: "Mum and Dad are all right, really: but you know what parents are like."  "Yes," said Tom.  "The ones who gave me birth are trying to kill me."  (Page 50).  The relationships between parent and offspring in the Tribe and among the demons are very different. Compare the relationship between Joe and Bernard with that of Tom and Larn

2. Talk about the relationship between Anna and Joe.  When does it change? Why does it change?

3. Tom remembered the touch of Anna's hand. Her eyes. And then like a flower opening, at last he knew that Anna had not wanted him as a slave. She had been trying to tell him—but he didn't know what she had been trying to tell him. Give him. He was almost sure she had been trying to give him something.  (Page 150).  What was Anna trying to give him? What is Anna's motivation in helping Tom? What is Joe's?

4. Edie Mackintosh is complex, pivotal character whom we, along with Tom, Anna, and Joe, distrust, but eventually feel different about. At what points did your ideas about Edie change?

5. Which character in the novel do you, as the reader, trust to explain the situation truly? Tom, Anna, Joe, or Edie? Why?

The Story

1. ...a little way ahead a door opened. Tom, caught by surprise, pressed himself against a rough clay wall—but the demons were too busy with each other to notice him. They were pressing their lips together.  (Page 15). This is an early clue to the true nature of the demons. Throughout the novel, what other clues does the author give to lead you to the realization that the demons are actually humans? When did you piece the clues together?

2. Anna discovers Tom when he returns to the shed to hide from Larn and Sia. Never having seen a member of the Tribe before Anna asks, "What are you?" After a moment Tom replies, "Lost."  What does he mean by that?

3. From the first time Tom enters the demon city, he feels a strange force pulling on him. What is it?

4. In the fantasy adventure genre there is usually a hero. In Cold Tom the hero is not clear-cut. Discuss what hero means. Who in the story approaches that ideal?

5. Tom could feel its [Anna's] great big horrible eyes on him. (Page 48). What is Tom afraid of? How do you react when you sense people staring at you?

6. The stars have a special meaning to the Tribe. What is it? How does it change for Tom in the course of the book?

Theme

1. Sia tells Larn: "They [demons] are no longer afraid. They are forgetting the tales that kept them in fear for so long." ... Once the Tribe had outnumbered demons. ... Now there were thousands of demons in the city. Hardly a year had gone by without more arriving in a new field to scour away the earth to build more houses. It was a belief long held that demons would never build on the common — but they were getting closer all the time.  (Pages 27, 28, 31).  The tribe is being squeezed out of existence by progress and by the fact that the demons no longer believe in them. Many cultures have stories about places or beings that once existed but now are only remembered in tales and legends. Can you imagine from stories in your own culture such places and creatures existing here and now? Describe them, their environment, and their relationship to people. Do you think they would hate and fear people as much as the Tribe does?

2. She [Sia] was very beautiful, tall and sapling fine.  (Page 5).  If beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, what is beautiful to Tom? What is ugly? How does every society, including our own, define beauty?

3. Chronicle the stages that Tom goes through as his Tribe characteristics fade and his human ones emerge.  In what ways is Tom ambivalent about the changes he is going through? Does he move past his ambivalence by the end of the story?  How have you experienced ambivalence about change, and growing up, in your own life?

4. After some time in the demon's city, Tom decides that he needs to return home to the common where he belongs. But once there, he realizes that he doesn't belong there after all. Neither does he fit in the demon world.…They [the Tribe] were bogged down on the common. They were trapped by the demons. They thought they were free, but they lived in fear, which was not freedom at all. He had spent his whole life in fear, in hiding. Not living at all. …The demons were slaves; but at least they were happy in their slavery.  (Page 155).  Tom is out in the cold with no place to belong. It leads him to a desperate decision. What is it? If you had an opportunity to advise Tom, what would you say? Often teens are faced with very difficult circumstances. Discuss situations in other books, movies, or with friends where characters have considered suicide as the only option.

5. He looked across at Bernard and Joe. They were rubbing away at their pieces of metal: they weren't looking at each other or exchanging a word, but as Tom looked a new thick vine was forming between them as heavy as a chain. And now it was growing again, out towards his chair. It caught Anna first; and he could hardly believe it didn't weigh her down to the ground. All she did was lie back against the padded chair like a cat in the sunshine. (Page 147). The vines that Tom sees engulfing Anna and her family are symbols of the emotional ties between people. Do you feel enslaved by your emotional relationships with siblings like Anna and Joe; with your parents; with your friends? Do your relationships free you in some ways? How?

Style/Voice

1. Before you read Cold Tom, what did the word "cold" in the title mean to you? As you read the book, how many other meanings for the word "cold" did you find

2. The author shows us familiar human objects and customs through Tom's eyes; examples are the sophie, and, Someone hit the front door twice. That was what you did when you wanted to get into a demon's house (p. 131). How does this technique emphasize Tom's sense of being an outsider? How do these instances affect your feelings toward Tom and your enjoyment of the story?

3. He ran. He took the first turn, and the second, and the third, but he was slow, slow, and they were bound to catch him.  A fourth turn. Square clay houses, and more, and more, and there was no way out.  (Page 21).  Sally Prue creates tension, a sense of danger, and suspense in this excerpt. How does she do this? What writing techniques does she use?

4. He looked up again at the stars. They studded the velvet of the sky like tiny diamonds—but that was all wrong. They should not be so small and bright and dead. They should be consuming the sky with swirling fire.  (Page 12).  The author paints pictures with words. Discuss her use of simile, metaphor, lyrical language, and imagery throughout the novel.

To purchase Cold Tom (0-439-48268-2) by Sally Prue, contact your local bookstore or usual supplier.  Teachers and librarians may call toll-free 1-800-SCHOLASTIC.  Prices and availability subject to change.