Australian Curriculum questions for Laurinda by Alice Pung

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• published: 26 Nov 2014
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Alice Pung answers Australian Curriculum questions about Laurinda. Questions by Laura Gordon. To download written Australian Curriculum questions and teaching notes for Laurinda, visit www.blackincbooks.com/teachers Question 1. (0.13) Your previous books have drawn heavily on your own life experience. Where does Laurinda sit in the story of your life? Is there any of your own adolescence in the book or is it a story that explores the difficulty most girls experience on their journey to adulthood? Question 2. (1.00) Lucy is a tenacious teenage girl who manages to look inside herself and find the resolve needed to resist the power and manipulation of the Cabinet. Do you think she is a typical teenage girl? How do you think readers will respond to Lucy? Question 3. (2.13) Tell us a bit about Amber Leslie. Is there anything redeeming about her? Do you think readers will identify with her or just despise her? What happens for those girls reading who may have behaved in similar ways? Question 4. (3.30) Laurinda is not set in the current day where students are consumed by social media and rely on electronic devices for communication. How different do you think life would have been for the girls in your novel if they had mobile phones and online profiles? Was this a deliberate choice to create a situation where the girls had to complete their nastiness face to face, and were willing to? Question 5. (5.09) Can you tell us a little about the family dynamics in this novel? On the one hand there is the Lam family who support each other and who fled their home country to provide a safe future for their children. These are people who work hard and dream of a different life for their son and daughter. And then in stark contrast to this is the Leslie family, a wealthy, educated mother and daughter who spend time together and share values. But they barely communicate and are often in conflict. What is at play here? Question 6. (7.05) The role of authority is really interesting in this novel. The way these girls not only feel they can manipulate those in charge of their education, but actually do such nasty things that achieve their goal of having a teacher resign is horrifying. But then the discovery that the principal Mrs Grey is supportive of the Cabinet exposes Lucy, and many readers like her, to the way power can often be corrupt. Tell us about the character of Mrs Grey, her choices, her motivations and ultimately the shift Lucy has toward her by the end of the text. Is Mrs Grey to blame? Question 7. (8.21) The notion of power and popularity is explored in this text, as it is in many coming-of-age novels. Does power always poison? Do you remember any literary examples from your own reading experience where the popular girl resists the urge to exploit those who she has the capacity to manipulate? Or would that be too unrealistic? Question 8. (9.28) The use of Linh is an engaging literary device in the novel. The use of the letter cleverly disguises the trick of who Lucy’s recipient really is. For the students reading this novel who have aspirations to write meaningful pieces, what can you tell them about the use of a twist or an element of surprise to narrative structure? Question 9. (10.25) The cover of your novel features the tartan kilt of the Laurinda uniform, a symbol of the prestige and tradition of this ladies college. Symbols play a key role in exploring the themes and establishing characters in this text, as they do in many texts. Which of the symbols in Laurinda are pertinent to you in the formation of character and the thematic considerations of the text? Question 10. (12.18) Much of your description is vivid, engaging and hilarious. How important is humour in a novel of this weight? What role does it play? Question 11. (13.46) Racism is still very much present in contemporary Australian society and as young people become less tolerant of racist behaviour, there is now a tendency to label every incident where race is mentioned as an example of racism even when it is not. Some of the examples in the text come from ignorance and a false sense of superiority, but some are examples of racism. Which conversations would you direct students to consider as examples of racial discrimination? Question 12. (15.02) What is the one message or concept you want readers, boys and girls, to think about after they have read your book?