Tradition
By Brendan Kiely
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Table of Contents
About The Book
“Deeply felt, powerful, devastating and, ultimately, hopeful.” — Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun Is Also a Star
“Powerful and necessary…an important, timely book.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be
“A story that belongs in every library.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“A thoughtfully crafted argument for feminism and allyship.” —Kirkus Reviews
From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Brendan Kiely, a stunning novel that explores the insidious nature of tradition at a prestigious boarding school.
Prestigious. Powerful. Privileged. This is Fullbrook Academy.
Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions, and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind.
Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches, whose mantra rings in his ears: Don’t disappoint us.
As Jules and Jamie’s lives intertwine, and the pressures to play by the rules and to keep the school’s toxic secrets, they are faced with a powerful choice: remain silent while others get hurt, or stand together against the ugly, sexist traditions of an institution that believes it can do no wrong.
“Powerful and necessary…an important, timely book.” —Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be
“A story that belongs in every library.” —School Library Journal (starred review)
“A thoughtfully crafted argument for feminism and allyship.” —Kirkus Reviews
From New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Brendan Kiely, a stunning novel that explores the insidious nature of tradition at a prestigious boarding school.
Prestigious. Powerful. Privileged. This is Fullbrook Academy.
Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions, and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind.
Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches, whose mantra rings in his ears: Don’t disappoint us.
As Jules and Jamie’s lives intertwine, and the pressures to play by the rules and to keep the school’s toxic secrets, they are faced with a powerful choice: remain silent while others get hurt, or stand together against the ugly, sexist traditions of an institution that believes it can do no wrong.
Excerpt
Tradition CHAPTER 1
JAMES BAXTER
In the mess of my first day at Fullbrook I had one clear thought: I do not belong here. I didn’t have the right clothes, the right hairstyle, the right way to speak. I didn’t even know I had no clue about any of those things until I stood on the sidewalk outside my new home, boys’ dorm number 3, Tapper Hall, and watched the families swirling around the residential quad. The seniors managing Move-In Day strolled around in their soft-toed loafers, their linen jackets and ties, relaxed and carefree, putting parents at ease with the smiles they tossed to each other across the walkways and grass. I watched, amazed, as some of the freshmen plucked those smiles out of the air and tried them on for themselves. They were naturals.
Not me. I was the eighteen-year-old moron starting all over again at a new high school. A fifth year—postgraduate, they call it, to be kind.
“Hey,” one of the linen jackets said, approaching me. “You must be the Buckeye.” All I wanted to do was hide, but the sun was a spotlight burning down through the leaves of the tree above me. When I didn’t respond, he continued. “They told me you were an athlete from Ohio.” He grinned. “Just look at you. You got to be the Buckeye. Hey, Hackett,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Found the Buckeye.”
I tried to look natural but I never knew what to do with my hands. That’s why I’d grown up holding a stick or a ball or a dumbbell. I clasped my fingers behind my back, and ended up looking like some keyed-up military man. I even had the stupid buzz cut.
All these guys had hair they had to style. Especially the guy walking up to us, the one called Hackett. These guys looked like they flossed their teeth with the kind of money I’d make in a summer working Uncle Earl’s farm. The short guy with a pit bull’s bulging shoulders and flat-faced grin, and his taller friend, the shaggy-haired pretty boy, the one called Hackett.
“What’s up?” I didn’t mean to sound standoffish, but I did. It comes too easy. I’m the kind of guy people expect to punch holes through walls—not because I want to, just because I can.
“Freddie.” The pit bull stuck out his hand. I took it.
The pretty boy looked on, sleepy eyed. “Hackett,” he said, without taking his hands from his pockets. “Ethan Hackett.”
“Hackett and I,” Freddie continued, “we’ve been assigned to you. All the new guys get a mentor to show them the ropes. Mostly freshmen, of course, but there are a couple PGs this year. So whatever, you’re one of the new guys.”
“We actually picked you, Buckeye,” Hackett went on.
“Ha!” Freddie barked. “No, I got assigned to you because I play real sports too. Hackett thinks skiing is a sport.”
“Ignore him,” Hackett said. “He has a limited vocabulary.”
Freddie pushed Hackett, who stumbled, but balanced himself quickly. “See,” Hackett said, smiling. “Guy talks with his fists.”
“Back home everyone called me Jamie,” I said, trying to say something.
“Yeah, great,” Freddie said. “Drop those last two bags in your room, Buckeye.” He wiped a broad arc in the air. “We’ll show you around.”
Freddie urged me on, slapping me on the shoulder, pushing me through the dorm. He and Hackett walked down the hall throwing those smiles, shaking hands with parents and freshmen along the way. “Welcome to Fullbrook!”
They could have been running for office.
Once we’d dumped the bags and were back outside, Freddie led us up the street between the dorms. “Girls,” he pointed. “Girls. Boys.” He grinned. “We’ll get to the girls themselves later.”
“Cool,” I said, trying to follow him. I was taking in the sweep of scenery, the narrow, zigzagging paths winding through clusters of trees, connecting one brick mansion to another. The blue day—even the watery reflections in the stained-glass windows seemed curated, cultivated, perfected. History was everywhere, looming over me like the long, leafy branches casting shadows over the walkway.
“Hear you’re a football player.”
A sliver of pain sliced through me. “Was.” Football was out. That life was over. One play and it was as if I’d ripped a hole in the ground and pulled my whole town down into the darkness below. “I’m here for hockey.”
My second sport. The one my family, Coach Drucker, and the handful of people who still talked to me back home all told me was my ticket up and out. Kid like you deserves a second chance, I’d been told.
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Freddie went on. “You’re the new secret weapon. But this is fall. Football, football, football.” He stutter-stepped, threw a fake left, and rolled around Hackett. He got a few paces ahead of us, stopped, and turned back. “What I mean is, Coach O would give his left nut to have you on the football team. What’d you play?”
“Linebacker.”
“Damn. That’s what we need, man! A defensive line. Blitz pressure. Sacks.”
He rambled on, setting nerves on fire beneath my skin. I hadn’t been on campus for an hour, and already I could hear the echoes from back home. What the hell’s the matter with you, Jamie?
“Look at you. Must have racked up a hell of a hit count. We scratch ours in rows on our lockers.” He bumped me with his shoulder. “Hit, hit, hit.” He nodded. “You know wassup.”
“That’s right.”
“Why aren’t you playing?”
I searched for something that wouldn’t sound as awful as the truth. “Grades,” I lied.
“For real?” Freddie said. “You have to do it all here, Buckeye. Do it all. Be it all.”
We crossed another street and Hackett pointed to a tree in front of the administration building. “Oldest tree on campus,” he said. “I don’t know, 250 years old, something like that.” He pointed to a break between branches. From where we stood looking up, the branches perfectly framed the engraved lettering in the arch above the front door of the administration building. It was Latin, which I only guessed because of the weird V for a U.
“School motto?”
“That’s right,” Hackett said. “ ‘Ut parati in mundo.’ Ready to take on the world, we say.” He grinned at Freddie.
“Are you screwing with me?”
“No,” Freddie said. He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, it’s corny as hell,” Hackett continued. “They’ll take the whole freshman class here and show them this. They’ll talk about the tree, its deep roots, its soaring branches,” he said, dropping his voice cartoonishly. “They’ll point to the school motto and remind them what it means to join the Fullbrook legacy.”
“Corny,” Freddie echoed. “Now let’s get to the real shit.”
Ready to take on the world? I’d seen the motto when I’d visited the previous spring. Everybody at Fullbrook seemed like a genius to me, already worldly, already honing their special skill, building robots, singing arias, starting their own tech company. I wasn’t ready to do one night’s homework. I wasn’t ready to tie a tie. What did I do? I could stop a puck from passing between the pipes—but I had to make it all the way to winter before anybody would care about that.
They swung me around the administration building and into the academic quad. The lawn in the center was as long and wide as three football fields combined. In fact, Fullbrook might as well have been a college campus. It had the multimillion-dollar sports complex, physics lab, arts center, and global studies buildings to prove it, not to mention the two-hundred-year-old redbrick mansions and halls housing all the other classrooms and offices. At the far end of the lawn, at the edge of the forest that surrounded the campus, were the baseball and football fields. But next to the sports complex, set slightly apart, as if to show off that it was there in the first place, was the hockey rink.
“That’s it,” Freddie said, pointing to the small stadium. “That’s where it’s all going down this year. I swear we’re making it to States.” The roof over the rink was concave, and because the great lawn sloped toward it, the entire building seemed sunk into the ground, the forest rising above it in the distance. The gleaming roof caught and threw back the light of the sun.
“Yeah, right,” Hackett said.
“Not football, maybe,” Freddie conceded. “We’re too small.” He eyed me. “But hockey? Hell, yes.” He clamped down on my shoulder. “We got our new secret weapon, right here. New goalie. My man, the Midwestern Monster.”
That nickname stuck like a fishbone in my throat. I was speechless.
He laughed and I forced a weak smile in return. “I know Coach O’s got to be talking to you about playing football, too,” he continued. “We need a line, man.”
Coach O’Leary wasn’t. He wasn’t supposed to. Football was out. Instead, we were supposed to meet the next day to begin planning my off-season training. I had to get decent grades, show the college world I was worth its time. I had to be ready to show my stuff this winter. I’d been All-State junior year, but I hadn’t played senior year, so everybody needed to see that I was the goalie they all believed me to be. Coach O was counting on me. Back home, my folks were counting on me, and Coach Drucker. My old principal, too. Even Uncle Earl. This winter, everything was on the line.
JAMES BAXTER
In the mess of my first day at Fullbrook I had one clear thought: I do not belong here. I didn’t have the right clothes, the right hairstyle, the right way to speak. I didn’t even know I had no clue about any of those things until I stood on the sidewalk outside my new home, boys’ dorm number 3, Tapper Hall, and watched the families swirling around the residential quad. The seniors managing Move-In Day strolled around in their soft-toed loafers, their linen jackets and ties, relaxed and carefree, putting parents at ease with the smiles they tossed to each other across the walkways and grass. I watched, amazed, as some of the freshmen plucked those smiles out of the air and tried them on for themselves. They were naturals.
Not me. I was the eighteen-year-old moron starting all over again at a new high school. A fifth year—postgraduate, they call it, to be kind.
“Hey,” one of the linen jackets said, approaching me. “You must be the Buckeye.” All I wanted to do was hide, but the sun was a spotlight burning down through the leaves of the tree above me. When I didn’t respond, he continued. “They told me you were an athlete from Ohio.” He grinned. “Just look at you. You got to be the Buckeye. Hey, Hackett,” he yelled over his shoulder. “Found the Buckeye.”
I tried to look natural but I never knew what to do with my hands. That’s why I’d grown up holding a stick or a ball or a dumbbell. I clasped my fingers behind my back, and ended up looking like some keyed-up military man. I even had the stupid buzz cut.
All these guys had hair they had to style. Especially the guy walking up to us, the one called Hackett. These guys looked like they flossed their teeth with the kind of money I’d make in a summer working Uncle Earl’s farm. The short guy with a pit bull’s bulging shoulders and flat-faced grin, and his taller friend, the shaggy-haired pretty boy, the one called Hackett.
“What’s up?” I didn’t mean to sound standoffish, but I did. It comes too easy. I’m the kind of guy people expect to punch holes through walls—not because I want to, just because I can.
“Freddie.” The pit bull stuck out his hand. I took it.
The pretty boy looked on, sleepy eyed. “Hackett,” he said, without taking his hands from his pockets. “Ethan Hackett.”
“Hackett and I,” Freddie continued, “we’ve been assigned to you. All the new guys get a mentor to show them the ropes. Mostly freshmen, of course, but there are a couple PGs this year. So whatever, you’re one of the new guys.”
“We actually picked you, Buckeye,” Hackett went on.
“Ha!” Freddie barked. “No, I got assigned to you because I play real sports too. Hackett thinks skiing is a sport.”
“Ignore him,” Hackett said. “He has a limited vocabulary.”
Freddie pushed Hackett, who stumbled, but balanced himself quickly. “See,” Hackett said, smiling. “Guy talks with his fists.”
“Back home everyone called me Jamie,” I said, trying to say something.
“Yeah, great,” Freddie said. “Drop those last two bags in your room, Buckeye.” He wiped a broad arc in the air. “We’ll show you around.”
Freddie urged me on, slapping me on the shoulder, pushing me through the dorm. He and Hackett walked down the hall throwing those smiles, shaking hands with parents and freshmen along the way. “Welcome to Fullbrook!”
They could have been running for office.
Once we’d dumped the bags and were back outside, Freddie led us up the street between the dorms. “Girls,” he pointed. “Girls. Boys.” He grinned. “We’ll get to the girls themselves later.”
“Cool,” I said, trying to follow him. I was taking in the sweep of scenery, the narrow, zigzagging paths winding through clusters of trees, connecting one brick mansion to another. The blue day—even the watery reflections in the stained-glass windows seemed curated, cultivated, perfected. History was everywhere, looming over me like the long, leafy branches casting shadows over the walkway.
“Hear you’re a football player.”
A sliver of pain sliced through me. “Was.” Football was out. That life was over. One play and it was as if I’d ripped a hole in the ground and pulled my whole town down into the darkness below. “I’m here for hockey.”
My second sport. The one my family, Coach Drucker, and the handful of people who still talked to me back home all told me was my ticket up and out. Kid like you deserves a second chance, I’d been told.
“Yeah, yeah. I know,” Freddie went on. “You’re the new secret weapon. But this is fall. Football, football, football.” He stutter-stepped, threw a fake left, and rolled around Hackett. He got a few paces ahead of us, stopped, and turned back. “What I mean is, Coach O would give his left nut to have you on the football team. What’d you play?”
“Linebacker.”
“Damn. That’s what we need, man! A defensive line. Blitz pressure. Sacks.”
He rambled on, setting nerves on fire beneath my skin. I hadn’t been on campus for an hour, and already I could hear the echoes from back home. What the hell’s the matter with you, Jamie?
“Look at you. Must have racked up a hell of a hit count. We scratch ours in rows on our lockers.” He bumped me with his shoulder. “Hit, hit, hit.” He nodded. “You know wassup.”
“That’s right.”
“Why aren’t you playing?”
I searched for something that wouldn’t sound as awful as the truth. “Grades,” I lied.
“For real?” Freddie said. “You have to do it all here, Buckeye. Do it all. Be it all.”
We crossed another street and Hackett pointed to a tree in front of the administration building. “Oldest tree on campus,” he said. “I don’t know, 250 years old, something like that.” He pointed to a break between branches. From where we stood looking up, the branches perfectly framed the engraved lettering in the arch above the front door of the administration building. It was Latin, which I only guessed because of the weird V for a U.
“School motto?”
“That’s right,” Hackett said. “ ‘Ut parati in mundo.’ Ready to take on the world, we say.” He grinned at Freddie.
“Are you screwing with me?”
“No,” Freddie said. He rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, it’s corny as hell,” Hackett continued. “They’ll take the whole freshman class here and show them this. They’ll talk about the tree, its deep roots, its soaring branches,” he said, dropping his voice cartoonishly. “They’ll point to the school motto and remind them what it means to join the Fullbrook legacy.”
“Corny,” Freddie echoed. “Now let’s get to the real shit.”
Ready to take on the world? I’d seen the motto when I’d visited the previous spring. Everybody at Fullbrook seemed like a genius to me, already worldly, already honing their special skill, building robots, singing arias, starting their own tech company. I wasn’t ready to do one night’s homework. I wasn’t ready to tie a tie. What did I do? I could stop a puck from passing between the pipes—but I had to make it all the way to winter before anybody would care about that.
They swung me around the administration building and into the academic quad. The lawn in the center was as long and wide as three football fields combined. In fact, Fullbrook might as well have been a college campus. It had the multimillion-dollar sports complex, physics lab, arts center, and global studies buildings to prove it, not to mention the two-hundred-year-old redbrick mansions and halls housing all the other classrooms and offices. At the far end of the lawn, at the edge of the forest that surrounded the campus, were the baseball and football fields. But next to the sports complex, set slightly apart, as if to show off that it was there in the first place, was the hockey rink.
“That’s it,” Freddie said, pointing to the small stadium. “That’s where it’s all going down this year. I swear we’re making it to States.” The roof over the rink was concave, and because the great lawn sloped toward it, the entire building seemed sunk into the ground, the forest rising above it in the distance. The gleaming roof caught and threw back the light of the sun.
“Yeah, right,” Hackett said.
“Not football, maybe,” Freddie conceded. “We’re too small.” He eyed me. “But hockey? Hell, yes.” He clamped down on my shoulder. “We got our new secret weapon, right here. New goalie. My man, the Midwestern Monster.”
That nickname stuck like a fishbone in my throat. I was speechless.
He laughed and I forced a weak smile in return. “I know Coach O’s got to be talking to you about playing football, too,” he continued. “We need a line, man.”
Coach O’Leary wasn’t. He wasn’t supposed to. Football was out. Instead, we were supposed to meet the next day to begin planning my off-season training. I had to get decent grades, show the college world I was worth its time. I had to be ready to show my stuff this winter. I’d been All-State junior year, but I hadn’t played senior year, so everybody needed to see that I was the goalie they all believed me to be. Coach O was counting on me. Back home, my folks were counting on me, and Coach Drucker. My old principal, too. Even Uncle Earl. This winter, everything was on the line.
Reading Group Guide
A Reading Group Guide to
Tradition
By Brendan Kiely
About the Book
Jules Devereux and James Baxter are both seniors at the prestigious boarding school Fullbrook Academy. Jules is the daughter of an alumnus, and James is an Ohio hockey player on athletic scholarship. As their unlikely friendship grows, they begin to truly understand the dangerous traditions that allow sexism, harassment, and rape culture to go unchecked at Fullbrook. After Jules is sexually assaulted, she turns to James and their small group of friends to help her reveal the truth, even if that means sacrificing their futures.
Discussion Questions
1. Based on their words and actions, what are your first impressions of James, Ethan, and Freddie? When readers first meet Jules, she’s passing out women’s health pamphlets to incoming students. What does this tell you about Jules’s character?
2. James feels like an alien at Fullbrook Academy, a “dumbass from corn country.” How does this feeling make James susceptible to peer pressure from Freddie? What does James mean when he thinks, “Still, I like the banter. Liked being a part of it all. There was something familiar—not the words, just being part of the conversation”? Describe a time in your life when you felt like James. Why do you think James burns the stolen picture, even though he doesn’t really want to?
3. Jules and Javi talk on the quad after Mrs. Attison makes Jules stop passing out women’s health pamphlets. Javi tells Jules that the tables and papers will “get cleaned up.” Jules hates this phrase that she hears too often at Fullbrook, thinking, “As if it wasn’t expected that those who made the mess had to clean it up.” How is this thought a metaphor for the way the administration fails to address sexual abuse and assault, effectively enabling it to continue? How are students’ inappropriate actions “cleaned up” for them before they can face the consequences?
4. Throughout the book, Freddie and the other hockey players refer to girls by demeaning terms: new prospects, hos, meat, a 9 or a 10. How does this sexist language promote the belief that women are sexual objects? How is the “senior carpet” tradition sexist and degrading to the female students? How does objectification lead to a normalization of rape culture? Do you hear this kind of language used by anyone around you or in the news? What can you do to try to change these conversations? Discuss what Jules means after Freddie and his pals tell her “‘You’re still an 8,’” and she thinks “it was like they weren’t even really talking to me, but rather, right at my body, wrenching the two apart. That seemed so dangerous, to think of me and my body as two separate things—as if one could be sacrificed to protect the other.”
5. Discuss the scene where James and Javi scratch demeaning graffiti off lockers. How is this a true moment of clarity and social action for James?
6. Javi refers to Ethan as “Fullofit.” How does Ethan display his insincerity?
7. Why do you think James feels a sense of home when he first meets Jules? Why do you think Jules sees honesty in James? How does James prove to be an honest and authentic person? James opens up to Jules and confesses to injuring Vinny Dawson. Why does he choose to tell Jules at this moment?
8. Discuss the meaning of the following lines: “Rumors become stories. Stories become the truth. And we live by the lies we believe—at least until the actual reality becomes overwhelming.” Give examples of this pattern from the text and from real-life events.
9. Students at Fullbrook Academy struggle with the expectations placed on them by the school, their families, and the pressures of tradition. Discuss how the various characters cope with the burden of expectations. What does Jules mean when she asks her friend, “‘Does it ever feel like it could all just come crashing down on you at any time? Like if you don’t hold it up there above you, everything’s going to collapse around you.’” What expectations are placed on you? How do you cope with them?
10. Throughout the story, characters are faced with moral decisions. Why is being able to do the right thing of utmost importance to James? When James learns of Freddie’s puck collection, he is disgusted. How is this a turning point for James? Discuss Jules’s realization with these lines: “It wasn’t that I just knew the facts. It was so much deeper. To know right from wrong, and to know it so profoundly, was a gift.” Why does she view it as a gift? Why does she feel it’s important to think beyond the facts?
11. When Jules and Javi find the bra on the tree branch, it deeply upsets Jules. Why do you think she is moved so deeply? Zak and Tucker, two guys on the hockey team, later discover Aileen and James together in these same woods. What does Zak mean when he comments, “‘Or . . . I mean, we are a team, right?’” How do comments like these contribute to the larger misconception of acceptable behavior? Why does Aileen snap at James afterward and say, “‘These are your boys?’” Why does she include James in this group? Is James responsible for the actions of his teammates?
12. Discuss the meaning of manliness from the point of view of the book’s characters. How does the school’s culture promote a twisted idea of what it means to be a man? How does the Fullbrook athletic program permit its male athletes to behave so badly?
13. Reread chapter nine, and discuss both teacher and student reactions to the conversation Jules opens up by placing a tampon on her desk. Compare these reactions with James’s reaction. What do James’s actions reveal about his character? How do they put him at odds with the other hockey players as well as with the unwritten gender and sexual codes at the school?
14. Jules is frustrated that her campaign to normalize the idea of menstruation isn’t as effective as she’d hoped; she tells James and Aileen, “‘It’s not normalizing anything if everyone just pretends they don’t see it or that the tampons don’t exist.’” What does it mean to normalize something? In what ways are people in denial at Fullbrook Academy? Think about this from the perspective of the students, teachers, and administration.
15. The nature of true friendship is one of the themes of Tradition. Discuss what Jules means when considering how she used to treat Aileen: “She had no reason to be extra nice to me, but I’d never been outright mean to her. I thought back, though. I guess I hadn’t said anything when I’d seen others be that way to her. Collateral damage is real. What about collateral accountability? I hadn’t thought about that.” What qualities do you see in Jules’s, James’s, Javi’s, and Aileen’s friendship? In what ways do you see them supporting each other?
16. Discuss the banana scene. Jules thinks, “Even in a room full of girls it was all about the guys.” Why do the girls go along with this tradition? Why was Jules so infuriated by it? How do the girls treat one another? How might this situation have been different if they were able to have an open conversation about the social pressures and behaviors expected of them?
17. Fullbrook has many traditions, including the senior party at Horn Rock. How can this type of environment serve to elevate the objectification of women and bring unwanted attention or advances? Why does the administration look the other way knowing that these parties and the things that happen at them are damaging to many of the students? How does this contribute to Jules’s version of Fullbrook’s unspoken motto: “This is how to grow up—eat shit and learn how to smile?”
18. Javi and Max are outed at the senior party when someone posts a video of them kissing. Discuss the influence of social media on behavior, and its possible consequences.
19. How do class structure and white privilege factor into the story? Why do you think Freddie and Ethan feel entitled to be condescending toward James? Do you think there is a problem with the Fullbrook chant “That’s all right, that’s okay, you’re gonna work for us someday”? Why is James unsettled by it?
20. Ethan sexually assaults Jules, despite her very clear protestations of “No” and “Stop.” Discuss how you felt as you read this chapter. Why does Gillian deny what she saw?
21. After the assault, Jules begins to think that somehow she is at fault. Why does she feel this way? Why does she feel ashamed? How does Ms. Taggart’s belief in Jules’s potential fill Jules with hope? Why is it so important for Ms. Taggart to advocate for Jules? After their meeting with Mr. Patterson, Ms. Taggart tell Jules, “‘We’re just getting started. We’ve alerted him. Now we’re going to push and pressure him.’” Why doesn’t the headmaster want to act on Jules’s accusations? Why is it important for Jules to speak up about the culture at Fullbrook and what happened to her?
22. What is post-traumatic stress disorder? Describe Jules’s PTSD symptoms. When Jules tells Javi about the rape, she thinks, “I’d said it out loud . . . now I could use it, say it.” What does she mean by this?
23. When Jules approaches Gillian after math class, she realizes that “there was something waking in me, something rolling over, lifting its head, and beginning to crawl up and out of me. I felt it, a weight rising. A heartbeat.” What do you think Jules is feeling? How does she act on that feeling?
24. How does Ethan twist the truth when Jules confronts him? Why does he know that he is safe to do so? How is Ethan’s uttering the word rape a turning point for Jules? Reread and discuss this passage and its implications. Jules realizes that what Ethan did to her was a form of stealing. What did he steal from her?
25. Reread and discuss chapter twenty-seven and the meaning of consent. When James and Aileen’s kissing begins to lead toward sex, Aileen stops suddenly. Discuss James’s reaction to her discomfort. How is he the exact opposite of Ethan and Freddie? How is James’s reaction a demonstration of the respect he has for Aileen?
26. After the Winter Ball committee publishes the list of dates for the dance, and Jules watches Lianna with Freddie and two of his hockey buddies, she thinks, “This wasn’t a new normal. It was the same old normal that has been here for years—just dressed up in a brand-new jacket and tie.” Discuss what she means by this, and cite examples from the text that support this statement.
27. At its core, sexual assault is about power and control. Discuss how Jules, James, and their friends begin to exert control over the rape culture at Fullbrook. How might their actions be the beginning of real change?
Extension Activities
1. First Women
Jules is fascinated by the forgotten first women of history. Have students read through a list of female pioneers in a variety of fields and choose a person to research. Then have them present their findings “in character.” They can dress up, bring props, incorporate mannerisms, etc.
2. This Is What a Feminist Looks Like
Have students compile a list of feminist organizations and leaders and study their goals and messages. Challenge them to identify social actions that they can engage in to become better feminists. Brainstorm other movements and organizations that fight for the rights of marginalized or silenced peoples.
3. Forgotten Things
Aileen and Jules undertake a photography project to document the forgotten things in
Cray-Cray’s toolshed. How is this project a metaphor for the girls at Fullbrook? Have students create photo collages by taking pictures of things around campus or in the community that have been forgotten. Give students time to present their work to the class.
4. No Means No
Share the Time.com opinion piece, Rape Culture Is Real, by Zerina Maxwell (http://time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real, 3/27/2014). Have students discuss and debate its main points while relating them to the themes of Tradition.
5. Me Too
Undertake a serious study of the #MeToo movement by examining news articles, blogs, and other cultural moments around this movement. Encourage students to relate what they uncover to examples from the text. What #MeToo statements might each of the main characters have made?
Guide written by Colleen Carroll, literacy specialist, education consultant, and author of the twelve-volume series, How Artists See and four-volume How Artists See, Jr. (Abbeville Press). Contact Colleen at www.colleencarroll.us.
This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes.
Tradition
By Brendan Kiely
About the Book
Jules Devereux and James Baxter are both seniors at the prestigious boarding school Fullbrook Academy. Jules is the daughter of an alumnus, and James is an Ohio hockey player on athletic scholarship. As their unlikely friendship grows, they begin to truly understand the dangerous traditions that allow sexism, harassment, and rape culture to go unchecked at Fullbrook. After Jules is sexually assaulted, she turns to James and their small group of friends to help her reveal the truth, even if that means sacrificing their futures.
Discussion Questions
1. Based on their words and actions, what are your first impressions of James, Ethan, and Freddie? When readers first meet Jules, she’s passing out women’s health pamphlets to incoming students. What does this tell you about Jules’s character?
2. James feels like an alien at Fullbrook Academy, a “dumbass from corn country.” How does this feeling make James susceptible to peer pressure from Freddie? What does James mean when he thinks, “Still, I like the banter. Liked being a part of it all. There was something familiar—not the words, just being part of the conversation”? Describe a time in your life when you felt like James. Why do you think James burns the stolen picture, even though he doesn’t really want to?
3. Jules and Javi talk on the quad after Mrs. Attison makes Jules stop passing out women’s health pamphlets. Javi tells Jules that the tables and papers will “get cleaned up.” Jules hates this phrase that she hears too often at Fullbrook, thinking, “As if it wasn’t expected that those who made the mess had to clean it up.” How is this thought a metaphor for the way the administration fails to address sexual abuse and assault, effectively enabling it to continue? How are students’ inappropriate actions “cleaned up” for them before they can face the consequences?
4. Throughout the book, Freddie and the other hockey players refer to girls by demeaning terms: new prospects, hos, meat, a 9 or a 10. How does this sexist language promote the belief that women are sexual objects? How is the “senior carpet” tradition sexist and degrading to the female students? How does objectification lead to a normalization of rape culture? Do you hear this kind of language used by anyone around you or in the news? What can you do to try to change these conversations? Discuss what Jules means after Freddie and his pals tell her “‘You’re still an 8,’” and she thinks “it was like they weren’t even really talking to me, but rather, right at my body, wrenching the two apart. That seemed so dangerous, to think of me and my body as two separate things—as if one could be sacrificed to protect the other.”
5. Discuss the scene where James and Javi scratch demeaning graffiti off lockers. How is this a true moment of clarity and social action for James?
6. Javi refers to Ethan as “Fullofit.” How does Ethan display his insincerity?
7. Why do you think James feels a sense of home when he first meets Jules? Why do you think Jules sees honesty in James? How does James prove to be an honest and authentic person? James opens up to Jules and confesses to injuring Vinny Dawson. Why does he choose to tell Jules at this moment?
8. Discuss the meaning of the following lines: “Rumors become stories. Stories become the truth. And we live by the lies we believe—at least until the actual reality becomes overwhelming.” Give examples of this pattern from the text and from real-life events.
9. Students at Fullbrook Academy struggle with the expectations placed on them by the school, their families, and the pressures of tradition. Discuss how the various characters cope with the burden of expectations. What does Jules mean when she asks her friend, “‘Does it ever feel like it could all just come crashing down on you at any time? Like if you don’t hold it up there above you, everything’s going to collapse around you.’” What expectations are placed on you? How do you cope with them?
10. Throughout the story, characters are faced with moral decisions. Why is being able to do the right thing of utmost importance to James? When James learns of Freddie’s puck collection, he is disgusted. How is this a turning point for James? Discuss Jules’s realization with these lines: “It wasn’t that I just knew the facts. It was so much deeper. To know right from wrong, and to know it so profoundly, was a gift.” Why does she view it as a gift? Why does she feel it’s important to think beyond the facts?
11. When Jules and Javi find the bra on the tree branch, it deeply upsets Jules. Why do you think she is moved so deeply? Zak and Tucker, two guys on the hockey team, later discover Aileen and James together in these same woods. What does Zak mean when he comments, “‘Or . . . I mean, we are a team, right?’” How do comments like these contribute to the larger misconception of acceptable behavior? Why does Aileen snap at James afterward and say, “‘These are your boys?’” Why does she include James in this group? Is James responsible for the actions of his teammates?
12. Discuss the meaning of manliness from the point of view of the book’s characters. How does the school’s culture promote a twisted idea of what it means to be a man? How does the Fullbrook athletic program permit its male athletes to behave so badly?
13. Reread chapter nine, and discuss both teacher and student reactions to the conversation Jules opens up by placing a tampon on her desk. Compare these reactions with James’s reaction. What do James’s actions reveal about his character? How do they put him at odds with the other hockey players as well as with the unwritten gender and sexual codes at the school?
14. Jules is frustrated that her campaign to normalize the idea of menstruation isn’t as effective as she’d hoped; she tells James and Aileen, “‘It’s not normalizing anything if everyone just pretends they don’t see it or that the tampons don’t exist.’” What does it mean to normalize something? In what ways are people in denial at Fullbrook Academy? Think about this from the perspective of the students, teachers, and administration.
15. The nature of true friendship is one of the themes of Tradition. Discuss what Jules means when considering how she used to treat Aileen: “She had no reason to be extra nice to me, but I’d never been outright mean to her. I thought back, though. I guess I hadn’t said anything when I’d seen others be that way to her. Collateral damage is real. What about collateral accountability? I hadn’t thought about that.” What qualities do you see in Jules’s, James’s, Javi’s, and Aileen’s friendship? In what ways do you see them supporting each other?
16. Discuss the banana scene. Jules thinks, “Even in a room full of girls it was all about the guys.” Why do the girls go along with this tradition? Why was Jules so infuriated by it? How do the girls treat one another? How might this situation have been different if they were able to have an open conversation about the social pressures and behaviors expected of them?
17. Fullbrook has many traditions, including the senior party at Horn Rock. How can this type of environment serve to elevate the objectification of women and bring unwanted attention or advances? Why does the administration look the other way knowing that these parties and the things that happen at them are damaging to many of the students? How does this contribute to Jules’s version of Fullbrook’s unspoken motto: “This is how to grow up—eat shit and learn how to smile?”
18. Javi and Max are outed at the senior party when someone posts a video of them kissing. Discuss the influence of social media on behavior, and its possible consequences.
19. How do class structure and white privilege factor into the story? Why do you think Freddie and Ethan feel entitled to be condescending toward James? Do you think there is a problem with the Fullbrook chant “That’s all right, that’s okay, you’re gonna work for us someday”? Why is James unsettled by it?
20. Ethan sexually assaults Jules, despite her very clear protestations of “No” and “Stop.” Discuss how you felt as you read this chapter. Why does Gillian deny what she saw?
21. After the assault, Jules begins to think that somehow she is at fault. Why does she feel this way? Why does she feel ashamed? How does Ms. Taggart’s belief in Jules’s potential fill Jules with hope? Why is it so important for Ms. Taggart to advocate for Jules? After their meeting with Mr. Patterson, Ms. Taggart tell Jules, “‘We’re just getting started. We’ve alerted him. Now we’re going to push and pressure him.’” Why doesn’t the headmaster want to act on Jules’s accusations? Why is it important for Jules to speak up about the culture at Fullbrook and what happened to her?
22. What is post-traumatic stress disorder? Describe Jules’s PTSD symptoms. When Jules tells Javi about the rape, she thinks, “I’d said it out loud . . . now I could use it, say it.” What does she mean by this?
23. When Jules approaches Gillian after math class, she realizes that “there was something waking in me, something rolling over, lifting its head, and beginning to crawl up and out of me. I felt it, a weight rising. A heartbeat.” What do you think Jules is feeling? How does she act on that feeling?
24. How does Ethan twist the truth when Jules confronts him? Why does he know that he is safe to do so? How is Ethan’s uttering the word rape a turning point for Jules? Reread and discuss this passage and its implications. Jules realizes that what Ethan did to her was a form of stealing. What did he steal from her?
25. Reread and discuss chapter twenty-seven and the meaning of consent. When James and Aileen’s kissing begins to lead toward sex, Aileen stops suddenly. Discuss James’s reaction to her discomfort. How is he the exact opposite of Ethan and Freddie? How is James’s reaction a demonstration of the respect he has for Aileen?
26. After the Winter Ball committee publishes the list of dates for the dance, and Jules watches Lianna with Freddie and two of his hockey buddies, she thinks, “This wasn’t a new normal. It was the same old normal that has been here for years—just dressed up in a brand-new jacket and tie.” Discuss what she means by this, and cite examples from the text that support this statement.
27. At its core, sexual assault is about power and control. Discuss how Jules, James, and their friends begin to exert control over the rape culture at Fullbrook. How might their actions be the beginning of real change?
Extension Activities
1. First Women
Jules is fascinated by the forgotten first women of history. Have students read through a list of female pioneers in a variety of fields and choose a person to research. Then have them present their findings “in character.” They can dress up, bring props, incorporate mannerisms, etc.
2. This Is What a Feminist Looks Like
Have students compile a list of feminist organizations and leaders and study their goals and messages. Challenge them to identify social actions that they can engage in to become better feminists. Brainstorm other movements and organizations that fight for the rights of marginalized or silenced peoples.
3. Forgotten Things
Aileen and Jules undertake a photography project to document the forgotten things in
Cray-Cray’s toolshed. How is this project a metaphor for the girls at Fullbrook? Have students create photo collages by taking pictures of things around campus or in the community that have been forgotten. Give students time to present their work to the class.
4. No Means No
Share the Time.com opinion piece, Rape Culture Is Real, by Zerina Maxwell (http://time.com/40110/rape-culture-is-real, 3/27/2014). Have students discuss and debate its main points while relating them to the themes of Tradition.
5. Me Too
Undertake a serious study of the #MeToo movement by examining news articles, blogs, and other cultural moments around this movement. Encourage students to relate what they uncover to examples from the text. What #MeToo statements might each of the main characters have made?
Guide written by Colleen Carroll, literacy specialist, education consultant, and author of the twelve-volume series, How Artists See and four-volume How Artists See, Jr. (Abbeville Press). Contact Colleen at www.colleencarroll.us.
This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes.
About The Author
Photo credit by Gary Joseph Cohen
Brendan Kiely
Brendan Kiely is the New York Times bestselling author of All American Boys (with Jason Reynolds), Tradition, The Last True Love Story, and The Gospel of Winter. His most recent book is The Other Talk: Reckoning with Our White Privilege. His work has been published in over a dozen languages, and has received the Coretta Scott King Author Honor Award, the Walter Dean Meyers Award, and ALA’s Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults. A former high school teacher, he is now on the faculty of the Solstice MFA Program. He watches too much basketball and reads too many books at the same time, but most importantly, he lives for and loves his wife and son. Find out more at BrendanKiely.com.
Product Details
- Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (May 1, 2018)
- Length: 352 pages
- ISBN13: 9781481480345
- Ages: 14 - 99
- Lexile ® HL710L The Lexile reading levels have been certified by the Lexile developer, MetaMetrics®
Raves and Reviews
“Tradition is a deeply felt, powerful, devastating and, ultimately, hopeful look at toxic rape culture and its destructive effects.” --Nicola Yoon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Everything, Everything and The Sun is Also a Star
"Powerful and necessary, Brendan Kiely bravely takes on class, privilege, and injustice in this layered, authentic story about friendship and finding the courage to stand up for what is right—Tradition is an important, timely book that will empower young men to rise up against misogyny and rape culture." --Amber Smith, New York Times bestselling author of The Way I Used to Be
"Tradition is a startling portrait of privilege and rape culture, but it is also ultimately a book about resistance and hope, the power of friendship to embolden our integrity, and the courage to do the right thing even when everyone else seems to be doing wrong." --Amy Reed, author of The Nowhere Girls
“Tradition is a stunning, timely, and deeply poignant novel about the culture of sexual violence. Sure to spark necessary conversations, this is 2018's must-read young adult novel.” --Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces
"Tradition isn't so much a book as it is an invitation and a promise. An invitation to stand up for ourselves and for what's right, and a promise that if we stand, we won't do so alone. Beautifully written with Brendan's wit and compassion, this book is a must read for all those hopeful for a better world." --Shaun David Hutchinson, author of the Florida Book Awards' Gold Medal and ALA's 2015 Rainbow Book List novel, The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley.
"Brendan Kiely’s Tradition is a searing literary call-to-arms in the most powerful and just sense: it takes a sledgehammer to our rotten, dangerous, and deeply ingrained traditions, so that we can build something new and beautiful in their place." --Jeff Zentner, author of the William C. Morris Award winning and Carnegie Medal longlisted The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
“The novel not only takes on rape culture within educational institutions, but condemns just about every sexist ideal we’re taught to accept”
– Culturess
* "A story that belongs in every library."
– School Library Journal, starred review
* “There is no doubt: this is an important book that all young adults should read.”
– VOYA, starred review
“Kiely bravely explores rape culture and how it intersects with class and privilege… readers will find themselves rooting for the world not as it is, but as it might yet be.” – Booklist
“This novel is a timely road map for those looking to find their places in this rapidly changing world… A thoughtfully crafted argument for feminism and allyship."
– Kirkus
* “A novel to discuss.”
– Publishers Weekly, starred review
* “Kiely handles extremely difficult issues--sexual assault, Internet shaming, substance abuse--delicately and tactfully, giving the characters the space organically to grow, learn and heal.”
– Shelf Awareness, starred review
“What Tradition demonstrates is that women finding the courage to speak up is only part of the equation; men have to listen and, more importantly, be willing to change.”
– Chicago Tribune
Awards and Honors
- Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award Master List
- TAYSHAS Reading List (TX)
- Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
- Wisconsin State Reading Association's Reading List
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): Tradition Hardcover 9781481480345
- Author Photo (jpg): Brendan Kiely Photo credit by Gary Joseph Cohen(0.1 MB)
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