Teacher’s Guide for Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

By Coll Rowe | August 31 2023 | English Language Arts

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus is a novel that is as original and vibrant as its protagonist. Elizabeth Zott is an ambitious and determined scientist living in the early 1960s. Her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality and her career plans are thwarted by discrimination. Elizabeth’s life takes a different turn and she enters the spotlight, where she dares other women to change the status quo.

Here is a Teacher’s Guide for Lessons in Chemistry that includes essential questions, independent and group activities, and resources.

 

Author Bonnie Garmus discusses the novel:

 

Praise for Lessons in Chemistry:

“An irresistible buoyancy, along with a deliberately sharp bite. Garmus’s novel focuses on a female scientist whose ambitions are impeded—and then rerouted—by a world not yet ready for her.” —Frank Bruni, The New York Times

“Feminism is the catalyst that makes [Lessons in Chemistry] fizz like hydrochloric acid on limestone. Elizabeth Zott does not have ‘moxie’; she has courage. She is not a ‘girl boss’ or a ‘lady chemist’; she’s a groundbreaker and an expert in abiogenesis. . . . To file Elizabeth Zott among the pink razors of the book world is to miss the sharpness of Garmus’s message. Lessons in Chemistry will make you wonder about all the real-life women born ahead of their time—women who were sidelined, ignored and worse because they weren’t as resourceful, determined and lucky as Elizabeth Zott. She’s a reminder of how far we’ve come, but also how far we still have to go.” —New York Times Book Review

A Novel
9780385547345

Lessons in Chemistry is a breath of fresh air—a witty, propulsive, and refreshingly hopeful novel populated with singular characters. This book is an utter delight—wry, warm, and compulsively readable.” —Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

$29.00 US
Apr 05, 2022
Hardcover
400 Pages
Doubleday