The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down | Teaching Key Figures

Character Descriptions

This section provides a short description of all the major characters in the book. This can be printed out as a study guide for students, used as a "key" for leading a class discussion, or you can jump to the quiz/homework section to find worksheets that incorporate these descriptions into a variety of question formats.

Characters

Lia Lee - This individual is the fourteenth child of Hmong immigrants, and the first of her family to be born in America.

Foua and Nao Kao Lee - The parents of the girl which this story is named after. Ensuring their children's safety is what motivates them to leave their homeland. They are justifiably skeptical of American medicine and cling to their Hmong belief system.

Neil Ernst and Peggy Philp - This husband and wife team oversee the care of a young girl with epilepsy. They head the pediatric residency program at...
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