Why does Dave gloss over the final few weeks of his mother's life? Do you think he and his sister really snuck their mother out of the hospital the way he describes in his dream sequence? Why present that information in such a summarized way? Does this make his mother's death less important to the plot? How can such an event, which had a huge impact on the overall plot, be so inconsequential to the narration?

Why does Dave, the youngest of the three older children, take physical custody of Toph? Do you think this was a wise choice? How would Dave's life have been different if he had not taken on Toph? Would Dave have embraced a life without Toph the way he embraced his responsibility to Toph?

Why does Dave repeatedly worry about social services taking Toph away? Is Dave a bad...