A Reading Group Guide
for
This Is the Place

Carolyn Howard-Johnson often permits educators to use excerpts from her work at with no royalties owed. That includes this guideline for reading groups. She asks that proper credits, order information, and this reading guide be included with handouts or online assignments. Although This Is the Place was published in 2001, it is still available on Amazon new and used feature (budurl.com/ThisIsThePlace).

Study Guide
For the Multiple Award-Winning Novel
This Is the Place

ISBN: 1588513521  Publisher: AmErica House

“When you live amid beauty sometimes you don’t recognize discrimination, and, if you do, you prefer not to acknowledge it.” ~Quotation from This Is the Place

Study Guide:

JayCe Crawford, author of The Pope and the Rainbow Sprinkles says, "Carolyn Howard-Johnson's This Is the Place is a "story that rings heartbreakingly true." A young journalist realizes that because she is half Mormon and half Protestant she is not suitable material for love. She delves into her Mormon heritage and journals her way through prejudice indo redemption. She learns to mend her own life when she finds she cannot mend her world. This novel, set in Salt Lake City in the 50s, reveals not only complexities of the heart but the secrets of what some consider a mysterious place and culture including a take on its place in western history.

Questions:

1. What do you think of the title, This Is the Place? Do you find a metaphor in it or does it simply refer to the Salt Lake Valley? When pioneer Brigham Young uttered those words, do you think that he meant only that this was the ground on which he would settle his people or do you think he had something else in mind? What you you think would be the differences between what Brigham Young said and meant and the way the author uses the very same words? What are the similarities?

2. Skylar Eccles is surprise to find that four generations of women -- her own ancestors -- made decisions very similar to the one she is about to make. How does the meat -and-bones study of genealogy differ from the work that Skylar undertakes? How is it similar? If you went back into your own family tree, what do you think you would find about yourself hiding in its branches?

3. The protagonist of this story makes some decisions that were uncommon for her time. Find some of the political and cultural differences between the 50s when she was struggling to find herself and now. How do you think your life would be different if you had encountered comparable difficulties? Do women still face similar problems?

4. We have all experienced intolerance in our lives. How do Skylar's experiences differ from what you have seen or felt? How are they similar?

5. Utah is a viable character in this novel and Skylar's love of it is palpable. Did you find it a place you'd like to to visit? Why or why not? If you live in Utah, were Sky's surroundings similar to what you see in your daily life? Different?

6. Skylar learns through writing but at first she cannot consciously come to terms with the lessons she is searching for. Do you think that journaling works that way? How do you think Sky's writing affects her life, her decisions? Has journaling been a learning experience in your life? Do you think it could be?

7. We find recurring objects in This Is the Place -- quilts, the implements of sewing, mountains, irises. Is this accidental? Do you think it was intended by the author or came from her subconscious? Which ones did you notice as you were reading? What do you think they signify?

Mini Biography
For Carolyn Howard-Johnson

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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s first novel, This Is the Place, won eight awards. Her second book, Harkening: A Collection of Stories Remembered, creative nonfiction, won three. An instructor for UCLA Extension’s world-renown Writers’ Program, her book The Frugal Book Promoter: How to Do What Your Publisher Won’t is recommended reading for her classes, was named USA Book News’ “Best Professional Book 2004," and was given the Irwin Award. Her second book in the How To Do It Frugally series is The Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book Forward to Avoid Humiliation and Ensure Success. It won USA Book News and Reader Views Literary Awards and the campaign for it won New Generations Marketing Award. Her chapbook of poetry Tracings, was named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best Reads list and was given the Military Writers' Society of America's Silver Award of Excellence. A poem titled "Endangered Species" won the Franklin Christoph prize in 2010 and she is writing and publishing the Celebration Series of chapbooks with Magdalena Ball. 

Carolyn is the recipient of the California Legislature’s Woman of the Year in Arts and Entertainment Award, and her community's Character and Ethics Committee awarded her work promoting tolerance with her writing. She was also named to Pasadena Weekly's list of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who make life happen."

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Purchase TRACINGS (Finishing Line Press) at Amazon.

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 "Careers that are not fed die as
readily as any living organism given no sustenance." 
~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson

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