After finishing Josephine & Daphne’s Summer Vacation, you will certainly be filled with a mixture of emotions. Delight over the uproarious, touching and thought-provoking tale you just finished. Anguish over the fact that the story is over and, although you wouldn’t have changed a thing, you wish it were longer. Hunger, which can be solved by eating that salami sandwich in your hand.
Most of all, you must be overcome with a nagging need to discuss the story with all of your friends, and re-read the story over and over again, both aloud and to yourself. Below is a list of questions to help facilitate discussion, and to aid in re-reading. Enjoy! And feel free to provide your answers in the comments.
1. In Part One, Josephine calls Daphne an amphibian. Given that Daphne is a tortoise, wouldn’t that mean that she was a reptile? Why doesn’t Daphne correct her? Should the author have researched and/or fixed this error? Is there really a difference between reptiles and amphibians anyway?
2. Do you think a bus ride to Mount Rushmore would be shorter than, longer than, or the exact same length as a bus ride to Saturn? Show your work.
3. What has grey skin, a trunk and comes out of nowhere?
4. How did I know you were holding a salami sandwich?
5. If there are creatures in sunbeams, does that mean the light coming through the window is teeming with Shadow Sharks and UV Ray Octopish? In what other ways has the story traumatized you?
6. How do you explain the presence of Todd the Brontosaurus at the Bermuda Triangle? Dinosaurs are extinct, correct? Is this one of those amphibian/reptile mix-ups? And what’s a brontosaurus doing with a Hawaiian shirt?
7. These Presidential “facts” from Part 9 don’t show up in history books. This isn’t a question, but a statement. So, I guess the question is, don’t you wish they did?
8. Would the milk of a MerCow be drinkable, especially if you fed them fish?
9. Can you think of any other questions?