1. Bradbury begins his book with three epigraphs: a line from poet W. B. Yeats, a proverb, and a quote from Herman Melville's Moby Dick. What is their purpose? How do they connect to the themes of the novel?

2. The concept of time plays a significant role in this novel. Charlie Halloway, when he struggles with insomnia, says, "We are blind to continuity, all breaks down, falls, melts, stops, rots, or runs away." After reading chapter 14, explain what Charlie is expressing with this statement.

3. Read Dandelion Wine and discuss the similarities between the two novels. What insights do they offer about childhood?

4. In chapter 22, Robert, Will, and Jim are fleeing from Miss Foley. The narrator describes them as "three animals in starlight. A black otter. A tomcat. A rabbit." Why are these boys depicted this way? Where else in the novel can animal imagery be found?

5. Charles Halloway hears a Christmas carol in October:

Then pealed the bells more loud and
deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right Prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to
men!"

What is the importance of this verse, and why is it fitting for it to appear at the novel's beginning? Does it provide a hint of what is to unfold?