Grown Ups Reading Group Guide

Reading Group Guide 1. Ida and Marthe sometimes seem to be trapped in the dynamic that they had as young girls. Do you think that we outgrow our childhood sibling relationships?

2. Which of the book’s characters did you relate to the most?

3. Did this novel change your opinions on what it means to be an adult? Did you find that it called any of your assumptions about adulthood into question?

4. Ida has plenty of opinions on how Marthe and Kristoffer are raising Olea – opinions, however, that she rarely voices.

Why do you think that this is?

5. Grown Ups is written exclusively from Ida’s point of view – did being so fully immersed in Ida’s perspective make you more sympathetic to her? Were there any moments where you actively disagreed with her?

6. How do the parenting styles of Mum and Stein compare to Marthe and Kristoffer?

7. How did you view Ida’s relationship with Olea?

8. What do Ida’s feelings about the family cabin, and about how she is becoming side-lined in the ownership of the cabin, say about her status as a ‘grown up’ within her family?