Book Club Guide for Four Eyes
Four Eyes
By Rex Ogle & Dave Valeza
For Ages 8-12
Genre: Graphic Novel & Memoir
Rex must survive the new world of 6th grade, including bullies, new friendships, and new glasses, which his family struggles to afford. Use these discussion questions, snacks, and activities during your next book club to bring this book to life. Four Eyes is great for tween book clubs or to recommend to fans of realistic fiction and graphic novels.
Discussion Questions
Use these discussion questions to get participants engaging with you and each other. Check out The Youth Desk’s Book Clubs page for even more questions.
- Are you (or were) you excited to start middle school? What about after reading this book?
- Is your school experience like Rex’s? In what ways?
- At the beginning of the book, Rex and Drew’s idea of the perfect best friend sleepover was to play basketball, rent movies, eat junk food, and stay up all night (p. 3). What is your idea of the perfect best friend sleepover?
- Reading comics, having a Barbie collection, and My Little Pony sheets are called baby or nerdy things in the book (p. 25-26). Are you willing to admit something you still love that someone might call you nerdy for still liking? [I’ll go first, I love book-character stuffed animals. I buy them and pretend they’re for my daughter, but they’re really for me because having them around makes me happy.]
- Do you think Rex has a good or bad relationship with his mom? Why?
- What did you think about Rex’s dad? What about his stepdad?
- Do you remember what meal Rex makes for his little brother? (scrambled eggs and hot dogs) Are there any meals you’re good at making?
- Do any of your family members speak different languages?
- Like Rex’s glasses or interest in comics, what things about you set you apart from others and are pretty cool?
- What helped Rex grow throughout the book?
Snacks
Juice boxes and mini bags of popcorn
These food items aren’t major elements in the story, but popcorn is featured when Rex goes to the movies (p. 131), and juice boxes can be found in various cafeteria scenes (p. 102).
Family dinners and cafeteria lunches happen frequently throughout the story, other foods featured included:
- Tater tots (Rex’s fav p.18)
- Cartons of 2% milk (p. 78)
- Tortilla chips (Rex pushes them while out to dinner at Scorchy’s Tacos p. 87)
- Crispy tacos (but Rex can’t get them because the restaurant is out of crispy shells! p. 87)
- Scrambled eggs and hot dogs (Rex makes them for his little brother p. 98)
- Apples (p. 102)
- Ice cream (p. 105 & p. 210)
- Snack bags of chips (p. 127)
- Strawberry milk (Kennedy says she was made fun of for drinking strawberry milk but Rex agrees it’s the best! P. 152)
- Egg rolls (p. 159)
- Breadsticks (p.173)
Extension Activities
Silly Glasses Craft
This idea was recommended by Librarian Amanda Lawrence (see her Horn Book article for more great middle-grade book club ideas) and it’s so much fun! Provide attendees with pipe cleaners OR cardstock, scissors, markers, and embellishments (stickers, sequins, etc.) and challenge them to make glasses they must wear throughout the discussion. These templates from The Kitchen Table Classroom work well printed on cardstock.
This activity also works great as an icebreaker. For more icebreakers that can be used with any book, check out The Youth Desk’s Book Clubs page.
Make your own comic strips
Provide blank comic strips (such as these ones), pencils, and colored pencils for attendees to create their own stories. Challenge them to recreate a scene from the book or a silly memory from their own life.
Read-Alikes
If your readers loved Four Eyes, they’ll also enjoy:
