Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie 
by David Lubar

David Lubar

While navigating his first year of high school and awaiting the birth of his new baby brother, Scott loses old friends and gains some unlikely new ones as he hones his skills as a writer. Starting high school is never easy. Seniors take your lunch money. Girls you’ve known forever are suddenly beautiful and unattainable. The guys you grew up with are drifting away. And you can never get enough sleep. Could there be a worse time for Scott’s mother to announce she’s pregnant? Scott decides high school would be a lot less overwhelming if it came with a survival manual, so he begins to write down tips for his new sibling. So Scott goes on to chronicle his first year of bullies, romance, honors classes, and brotherhood in Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie.

David Lubar grew up in New Jersey and now lives next door in Pennsylvania. Armed with a degree in philosophy from Rutgers University and no marketable job skills, he spent several years as a starving writer before accidentally discovering that he knew how to program computers. He is now a full-time writer and the author of eleven books for teens and young readers, including DUNK, FLIP, and WIZARDS OF THE GAME. David Lubar lives with his wife; they have one highly intelligent daughter and three idiosyncratic cats. 

1. Describe the dynamic between Scott and his friends Mitch, Patrick, and Kyle. What role does each play in their group? What does each bring to the group? How does this dynamic change throughout the book? How does this affect Scott?
2. What is Scott’s first day of high school like? How does he feel at the end of it? Have you ever had a first day of school similar to Scott’s? What news does Scott get later that evening? How does he react?
3. Why does Scott begin writing to his sibling? What sorts of things does he write about as the story continues? Why does he insist that the notebook is not a diary? Do you agree with his reasoning? How do the notebook entries contribute to your reading experience? Do you like them? Why or why not?
4. Discuss the relationship between Scott and Bobby. Is Bobby a role model for Scott? Why or why not? In what ways does their relationship grow throughout the book?
5. Think about the reason Scott joins the school paper and the reaction he has after learning that Julia was only a guest. Is his disappointment valid? Why doesn’t he quit the paper? What would you have done? Have you ever had to make the best of a “bad situation”? Did things turn out better than you expected?
6. At the end of chapter 11, Scott tells the baby that “flux sux.” What does he mean by this? Why do you think he is having difficulty adapting to the changes happening in his life? Predict some possible outcomes of these circumstances. Take a moment at the end of the book to review your predictions and see if any of them were right.
7. Mr. Franka teaches the class the line “Take arms against a sea of troubles.” What conclusions does the class draw about the meaning of the line? Why do you think Lubar places this phrase after the chapter about the dance and Patrick moving? Suggest some possible “arms” that Scott could take against his troubles.
8. How do most of the students feel about the new girl, Lee? Discuss the interaction Lee and Scott have about S. Morganstern’s book. What is the significance of the particular book she is holding?
9. How does the episode with “A Football Feast” demonstrate both low and high points for Scott? Have you ever been in a situation where somebody heard you say something you didn’t mean for them to hear? How did you remedy the situation? What lessons did you learn? What do you think Scott learned in this instance?
10. How does Scott react when he hears about a fellow student’s suicide attempt? Why does he suspect the student is Lee? How does the situation affect his thoughts and actions? Do you agree with Lee’s assertion that it doesn’t matter if Scott liked Mouth, as long as he was nice to him? What do you think she means by that?
11. In chapter 28, Scott says that he “felt for the first time in ages that there were some things that weren’t changing.” Why does he have this feeling at this particular moment? Have things really stopped changing? Describe the ways Scott has adapted to his environment that have helped him to now feel content.