When I Was the Greatest

Where is the story set? How does Ali, in his role as narrator, construct this setting? How does the story’s physical setting influence its emotional tenor?

How is Tourette’s syndrome represented, and in what ways does Reynolds’s execution stay true to the realities of a person living with Tourette’s syndrome? In addition to the individual experience of Tourette’s, Reynolds also incorporates social perceptions of the disorder. How does he do this?

What details does Reynolds use to represent the differences between Tasha’s and Ali’s parts of the neighborhood? What role does gentrification play in these differences, and what message is Reynolds sending about the useful and harmful impacts of gentrification on neighborhoods like Bed-Stuy?

Compare the descriptions of Ali’s and Noodles’s home environments. What do they tell us about their family dynamics? What these dynamics, and how have these dynamics and the boys’ environments shaped their identities?

Food is used to symbolize characters’ feelings toward each other. Discuss four instances where characters nonverbally communicate their feelings through interactions with food. Are these feelings positive or negative, and what do they contribute to the story?

Compare the descriptions of Doris and Janice. They are both “absentee parents,” but they are not described in the same way. What do the differences in their representations tell us about the attitudes toward their respective professions and roles as mothers?

How are masculinity and male relationships represented in story? Does the story challenge any male stereotypes? If so, how and to what effect?

How is humor used in the story? How does the element of humor impact your reception of it? Does it distract from the seriousness of the issues represented, or does it make the subject matter more palatable?