Resources
For Educators
Curriculum connections, classroom discussion questions, essay prompts, and author visit information for teachers bringing The Grove into the classroom.
About the Novel for Educators
The Grove is a coming-of-age historical novel set in rural Central Florida in the early 1960s. Recommended for readers 14 and older, the novel follows sisters Pip and Sissy as they navigate poverty, family hardship, first love, and the racial and class tensions of the Civil Rights era—told through the lens of a fading orange grove and the arrival of a traveling carnival that changes everything.
Though categorized as young adult fiction, the novel's themes are universal. It works equally well in ELA, U.S. History, and Florida Studies curricula, and its literary quality has been recognized by starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal.
Curriculum Connections
English Language Arts
- —Coming-of-age narrative structure and character arc
- —Historical fiction: research, authenticity, and imagination
- —First-person point of view and unreliable memory
- —Voice, dialect, and the language of place
- —Figurative language: metaphor, symbolism, setting as character
Social Studies / U.S. History
- —Civil Rights era: race and class in the American South
- —Rural poverty and the agricultural economy of the 1960s
- —Gender roles and female agency in mid-century America
- —Migration, labor, and the citrus economy of Florida
- —Historical change and community resistance
Florida Studies
- —Florida history: pre-development Central Florida
- —The citrus industry and its environmental and cultural legacy
- —Florida Cracker culture and rural communities
- —Environmental history: the transformation of Florida's landscape
Essay Prompts
- 01
Analyze how Brooks Whitney Phillips uses the orange grove as both setting and symbol. What does it represent to each sister, and how does its condition mirror the family's situation?
- 02
Compare how Pip and Sissy respond to the arrival of the carnival. What does each character's response reveal about her personality, desires, and understanding of the world?
- 03
How does Phillips portray the tensions of race and class in the novel's setting without making them the explicit focus of the narrative? What is the effect of this approach?
- 04
The novel is set at a moment of enormous national change that the characters experience only partially. How does Phillips create the feeling of a world in transition?
- 05
Write an essay examining the theme of sisterhood in The Grove. How does the sisters' bond both sustain and limit them?
Download the Educator Guide
A comprehensive curriculum guide with additional prompts, standards alignment notes, historical context, and classroom activity suggestions.
Download Educator Guide (PDF)Request an Author Visit
Brooks Whitney Phillips is available for school author visits, virtual and in-person. Contact to discuss availability and program options.