The Poisonwood Bible is the story of a Southern Baptist preacher and his family, who picked up and moved to Kilanga, Congo, Africa, to be missionaries to the people there--against the wishes of the Mission League. The Prices had no idea what they were getting into; the hardships they faced included the language barrier, starvation, disease, and death. Their time spent in Africa eventually tore the family to pieces, as well as caused them to question everything they were ever taught to believe....

Barbara Kingsolver is a diverse writer, as she was a journalist and science writer before becoming a novelist, poet and writing essays. She was born in 1955 in Annapolis, Maryland. She studied piano, biology and ecology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona. She then traveled throughout Europe, finding various small jobs before moving to Arizona. She worked as a freelance writer and published her first novel, The Bean Trees, in 1988, during a period of chronic insomnia which she had after her first pregnancy. Kingsolver has two daughters, Camille and Lily and lives with her second husband, guitarist Steven Hopp in Tucson.

The Bean Trees, 1988

Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983, 1989

Homeland and Other Stories, 1989

Animal Dreams, 1990

Another America, 1992

Pigs in Heaven, 1993

High Tide in Tucson, 1995

The Poisonwood Bible, 1998

Prodigal Summer, 2000

Small Wonder: Essays, 2002

Last Stand: America's Virgin Lands, 2002

1) The Troubled Hearts of Afica by: Robert Edgerton

2) The Assassination of Lumumba by: Ludo De Witte

3) The African Stakes of the Congo War by: John F. Clark

4) Barbara Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible: A Reader's Guide by: Linda Wagner-Martin

5) Intro to Africa: a Review of The Poisonwood Bible http://www.sabes.org/resources/fieldnotes/vol11/f11gabb.htm

6) Before We Kill and Eat You: The Miracles and Adventures of a Pioneer Missionary Couple in Africa by: H.B & Ruthanne Garlock

7) A History of the Church in Africa by: Bengt Sundkler

8) Barbara Kingsolver's website http://www.kingsolver.com/home/index.asp

1) What was the turning point of the book?

2) What are some differences in all the sisters?

3) Why do you think Nathan didn't get his own chapter?

4) What is the significance of the title?

5) What were the effects of Leah joining the hunt with the men?

6) What were some of the effects of having different narrators throughout the novel?

7) How do you think each sister changed after their experience in Africa?

8) Which characters sought forgiveness and which ones gave forgiveness.

9) What was the significance of Nathan baptizing the African children at the end of the novel?

10) What happened to Nathan after the family became unraveled?

11) Why is Orleanna the only one who writes in past tense?

12) How do you think Orleanna's past and upbringing formed the person she was in Africa?

13) How did the relationship between the sisters change?

14) Why did Brother Fowles and Nathan not get along?

15) What does Methusalah (the parrot) symbolize?

16) After returning to Georgia how was Orleanna affected?

17) What is the significance of the gardens throughout the novel?

18) Why did the sisters feel guilty after Ruth May's death?

19) Do you think Rachel feels as guilty as the other sisters by Ruth May's death?

20) What was the significance of the hope chests and which sister finished hers?

1) How does each daughter's relationship with their parents differ?

2) Why did Orleanna save Ruth May instead of Ada?

3) How did the relationship between Leah and her father change?

4) How, as a parent, would you feel if you had to uproot your family, and move to a foreign place? In any way do you sympathize with Oreleanna and her overall reaction to the Congo?

5) Do you feel that Nathan loved his work more than children? Wife?

6) Do you think that Orelanna is justified in keeping her emotions separate from her family?

7) As a parent, how would you react to your own child's death?

8) Do you think that you would be able to save only one of your children? What child would you have saved, Addah or Ruth May?

9) As a mother would you have allowed your husband to take you away from civilization, if you didn't believe in the mission?

10) Is there any experience in your life where you can relate to the feelings of the family? Any journey, trial, or tribulation where you had to make hard decisions, or you were uprooted and put into a completely different place?