DISCUSSION AND READING GROUP GUIDE
Little Mice
For book groups and classroom use — age 14+
NOTE - These questions contain major plot spoilers. Please don't read until you have finished the novel
OPENING THE WORLD
1 - The novel opens with a line from the Blood Laws: “Each citizen must contribute to society. If a citizen fails to find a suitable objective, one will be assigned.” What does this tell us about the world before we've even met Astra? Does this remind you of any real-world systems or ideologies?
2 - The Founder's myth — two mice, one old and one young, sewn together — frames the young sustaining the old as natural and even beautiful. Does our society ever normalise a similar idea? How is this power imbalance mirrored between generations today?
POWER & INEQUALITY
3 - Astra and Lucile face the same oppressive world but make opposite choices — one resists, one plays the game. Which strategy proves more successful, and do women today still face the same dilemma?
4 - In Little Mice, health is not a right but a commodity — bought, rationed, and distributed according to class. The Canopy has plasma clinics; the Zone has donation chairs. How far is this from real-world healthcare systems?
5 - In Little Mice, life extension exists to serve the powerful at the expense of the young. If science could significantly extend human life, should it? What might be the repercussions — for individuals, for societies, for generations not yet born?
COMPLICITY & CONTROL
6 - Like plasma in the novel, many of our everyday conveniences — fast fashion, cheap electronics, chocolate — are produced under conditions that amount to modern slavery. At what point does ignorance become complicity, and is there a moral difference between the two?
7 - The forced marriage at the end of the novel is presented as a "solution" to Astra's dangerous influence. What does this reveal about how the Assembly views women — and how it uses marriage as a mechanism of control?
MEDIA, TRUTH AND BIAS
8 - The Assembly controls what citizens see and hear about the Donor Zone. News reports frame donors as dangerous and criminal, while Enforcer violence goes unreported. Can you think of examples from today's world where media coverage consistently misrepresents a group or country? What makes bias so hard to recognise when you're inside it?
TECHNOLOGY & THE FUTURE
9 - AI is already removing the first rung of the career ladder in many industries. If governments fail to act, could a world like that of Little Mice be where we're heading — and what (if anything) could governments be doing to prevent it?
CHARACTERS
10 - Which character in the novel do you most recognise yourself in?
11 - By the end of the novel, how do you judge Thomas? Is betrayal ever justified or understandable? What would you have done in his situation?
12 - What did you think about Joshua by the end of the novel? Do you believe he was complicit or innocent?
13 - In hospital, Astra feels torn between Joshua and Kass. Were you rooting for either of them — and do you think her decision was wise or foolish?
CONNECTING THE THEMES
14 - The novel is set in a fictional future but draws on real present-day anxieties. Which of the themes — age inequality, health inequality, media bias, the rise of AI — felt most urgently relevant to you personally, and why? Did reading the novel change how you think about any of them?
DEBATE STARTERS
"Truly unbiased reporting is a myth." - Discuss
"No amount of life extension is ethical if it depends on the suffering of others." - Discuss
"The rise of AI is no different from the industrial revolution. The jobs that will lost will be replaced by jobs we can't yet imagine. Governments should stay out of it." - Discuss
CREATIVE EXTENSION — FOR THE CLASSROOM