"Iron Giant" Novel & film Discussion Questions

An editable, Common Core-aligned  set of discussion questions and vocabulary words for use with the novel, The Iron Giant, by Ted Hughes (originally published as The Iron Man in 1968) and the 1999 film, The Iron Giant, directed by Brad Bird. 

The film is a very loose adaptation of the novel; though plot and characters differ quite a bit between works, they share some common themes, among them, friendship, sacrifice and Cold War hysteria (the latter evident to adult readers and viewers, but likely lost on kids). The novel is set in the late 60s, the film in the mid-50s. In each story a metal man enters the life of a boy named Hogarth who struggles to save his new giant-friend from nuclear annihilation in the film and McCarthyist paranoia (or, depending on the reader’s politics, perhaps, the Soviet “menace”) personified as a “space dragon” in the novel.

1-page PDF with links to FULLY EDITABLE Google docs