Every Day

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay.

Differentiation Suggestion: For English learners or struggling writers, strategies that work well include graphic organizers, sentence frames or starters, group work, and oral responses.

Scaffolded Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. A has never had their own body; their life depends on the body in which they wake up.

• In general, in what bodies is A most comfortable and happy? (topic sentence)
• Compare and contrast 2 of the bodies in which A is uncomfortable/unhappy to 2 of those bodies in which A is comfortable/happy.
• In your conclusion, discuss how even with the Fluidity of Identity, the author makes a point in Every Day about what sorts of basic elements contribute to human happiness.

2. There are forty-one 16-year-old characters in Every Day, not including A.

• Considering the vast number of personalities and life experiences portrayed throughout the novel, what does A mean when they say that A believes that people are “98%” similar to each other? (topic sentence)
• Select 2 pairs of characters to analyze in which each member of the pair represents an “extreme” in the novel.