Do you have a book club or reading group? This is the perfect tool to accompany your reading of Inside the Well: The Midland, Texas Rescue of Baby Jessica.

Whether you read a chapter at a time or consume huge chunks at a time, this guide provides insightful questions to help examine the story even further.

Download the Guide Here.

1. Prior to reading the book, how much did you know about the rescue of Baby Jessica?

2. The oil bust is central to the time and place of the story. How does it affect the responders? Do you think they would have responded differently if Midland were still a thriving oil town at the time of the rescue?

3. The main character of the event is notably absent from the book. What does it mean to you that Jessica McClure is largely missing from the narrative?

4. Hubris is a central theme of the book, with Robert O’Donnell and Andy Glasscock, in particular, demonstrating exaggerated pride, at least according to some around them. Do you think they were appropriately proud of their rescue role or were inappropriately arrogant?

5. Are seeking the limelight or pulling away from it the only choices to make in such a unique circumstance? What other choices could O’Donnell and Glasscock and Forbes and Roberts have made?

6. Tragic heroes like those of ancient Greek or Shakespearean tragedies typically have heroic traits that earn the audience’s sympathy but also have character flaws or make mistakes that lead to their own downfall. Characters like Oedipus, Hamlet, and Romeo are tragic heroes. Do you think Glasscock and O’Donnell fit that definition?

7. Memory can be an unreliable guide. Given the decades that passed between the event and some of the interviews, does that change your view of the reliability and trustworthiness of the accounts?

8. If such an event occurred today, do you think the media and public response would be different? Would that change the behavior and choices of the responders?

9. CNN is a new media company in October 1987. Do you think the coverage of the rescue accelerated its development as a media giant?

10. In the preface, the author describes his childhood experience coming across the immediate aftermath of Jessica McClure’s fall into the well. Does that influence how you read the story? Does Lunsford’s childhood and his family connection to and appearance in the story impact his role as non-fiction author?