One of Us is Lying
Written by Karen M. McManus

Publisher’s Summary:
Pay close attention and you might solve this.
On Monday afternoon, five students at Bayview High walk into detention.
Bronwyn, the brain, is Yale-bound and never breaks a rule.
Addy, the beauty, is the picture-perfect homecoming princess.
Nate, the criminal, is already on probation for dealing.
Cooper, the athlete, is the all-star baseball pitcher.
And Simon, the outcast, is the creator of Bayview High’s notorious gossip app.

Only, Simon never makes it out of that classroom. Before the end of detention Simon’s dead. And according to investigators, his death wasn’t an accident. On Monday, he died. But on Tuesday, he’d planned to post juicy reveals about all four of his high-profile classmates, which makes all four of them suspects in his murder. Or are they the perfect patsies for a killer who’s still on the loose?

Everyone has secrets, right? What really matters is how far you would go to protect them.

Primary Source Pairing:
Told from four perspectives, One Of Us Is Lying is a fast-paced, page-turning read. Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper tell the story of the afternoon detention that changed their lives. As the plot thickens, so do the accusations that one of these students killed Simon Kelleher. As an adaptation to the primary source pairing, invite students to use images to create a visual character map for the characters in the book. The act of curating a group of pictures describing the characters in One Of Us Is Lying creates a visual literacy learning experience that will deepen comprehension and garner a stronger reading relationship with the book.

Questions for Discussion:

• How do the pictures describe the characters in One Of Us Is Lying?
• What additional phrases would you use to describe Bronwyn, Addy, Nate, and Cooper?
• How does using images help you understand the characters and plot of the book?
• Choose another character in the book (Simon, Jake, Eli Kleinfelter, etc.) and create a visual character map describing him or her.

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
OneOfUsIsLying_CharacterChart: Created by JMarek