View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How do Hester and Lester react to Maniac?

2. What happens when Maniac meets "Hands" Down?

3. Why does Maniac get out of bed to go to the front door of the Beale's house?

4. It is such a hot August day that the kids decide to play in what?

5. What does Mr. Cobble use the knot for?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Grayson and Maniac teach each other and how does it affect them?

2. Why does Maniac paint 101 on the front door of the equipment room?

3. Right at the start of this novel, the reader knows that the main character is going to have a different life than the normal pre-teen. How so?

4. How is Maniac blind?

5. Why does Maniac say Amen when Grayson finishes reading his first book and what effect does it have on Grayson?

6. What is Grayson so curious about that he obviously has no understanding of during his meal with Maniac at the diner?

7. How is the scene in the kitchen between Mrs. Beale and Maniac both ironic and symbolic?

8. Maniac's life tale may be bigger than he actually is. What begins the exaggeration in Chapter 2?

9. What does the reader learn about Maniac's personality through the scene of Mars Bar and Maniac and the candy bar?

10. What stops McNab and the Cobras from chasing Maniac after the home run hit? What does this say about the boys?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How is the pillbox the most frightening part of the whole novel? What does the pillbox symbolize? When John McNab states that others will build one once they see the McNabs, why does this make Maniac sick? Why should it make anyone sick?

Essay Topic 2

Chapter 14 ends with this quote, "Inside a house a kid gets one name, but on the other side of the door, it's whatever the rest of the world wants to call him." How and why does Maniac wear one "mask" inside and one outside? How does this apply to all of mankind?

Essay Topic 3

Why is Maniac able to fit into both the black community and the white community? Since he can do this, what does he see that others who cannot fit in don't see?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,330 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample