Do you have people in your life (friends, co-workers) outside your biological family that you would consider family? What about those relationships makes them feel like family? Do you feel differently about your biological family than you do about your chosen family? What do find in your experience of one that you don't have in the other?

Discuss the symbolic value of the stone pillar. Consider its age and Grandfather Kem's belief that it originally came from an ancient temple - to coin a phrase, a "pillar of faith". How do you think its durability, for example, relates to the narrative's thematic and narrative elements - for example, the friendship between Dara and Jantu?

Have you ever had an object - a toy, a souvenir, anything - that triggered courage, confidence, and strength? How did that object come to have meaning for you? In...