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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In the middle of Chapter 7, what did Gigi share about the pastor at her church?
(a) Gigi admitted that the pastor took her into a back room and raped her.
(b) Gigi confessed that the pastor came up behind her and rubbed against her inappropriately.
(c) Gigi shared that the pastor was having an affair with her mother.
(d) Gigi declared that the pastor was stealing money from the congregation.

2. In Chapter 1, while meeting with therapist, Sister Sonja, as a teenager for the first time, how did August begin the session?
(a) "I was waiting for my mother..." (15).
(b) "I merely want to see her..." (16).
(c) "I hope my mother is alive..." (15).
(d) "She will never come back..." (12).

3. What did August and her brother do at night as explained at the end of Chapter 7?
(a) August and her brother created a plan to run away.
(b) August and her brother held hands.
(c) August and her brother sang hymns together.
(d) August and her brother cried all night.

4. What major event happened to August's brother in Chapter 2?
(a) August's brother cut his forearm on the broken glass of the window.
(b) August's brother left to live with their mother.
(c) August's brother got severely beaten by their father.
(d) August's brother ran away, but their father found him hiding under a bridge.

5. In Chapter 4, who moved into the apartment below August's family?
(a) Jennie.
(b) Emily.
(c) Sarah.
(d) Crystal.

Short Answer Questions

1. What did August's mother sleep with under her pillow as stated at the start of Chapter 4?

2. At the start of Chapter 2, what year does the narrative shift to?

3. What does August say saved her brother from feeling "halfway whole" (3)?

4. What did August's father do to the apartment window she and her brother always peered through?

5. What was the first thing Sylvia asked August when they met?

Short Essay Questions

1. From what perspective and tense is the story related? How is the novel framed?

2. Why did August think that her mother would come to her in Brooklyn while growing up?

3. Why does August say in Chapter 4, "We didn't understand the kind of poverty we lived in" (42)?

4. What is the significance of the quote that opens the novel?

5. What did SweetGrove represent to August when she was growing up?

6. What did Gigi's mother tell her about her appearance when she was six?

7. How is the novel structured? Is the story related in a linear fashion or nonlinear? Why is this important?

8. Who was Miss Dora and how is she described in the narrative?

9. What is the Nation of Islam? How does it factor into the novel?

10. What did August think about Sylvia, Angela, and Gigi when she first saw them?

(see the answer keys)

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