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

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Gemma describe the bad fairy in Chapter 3?

2. What does the Polish word 'Ksiezniczka' mean in English?

3. What does Becca avoid upon arriving at work in Chapter 8?

4. What had Becca's first article at her present job been about?

5. Who is the youngest of Gemma's granddaughters?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Becca explain having never seen Gemma's carved box before in Chapter 8?

2. What does Sylvia press Gemma for a definition for in Chapter 9?

3. What are the documents that Becca falls asleep going over in Chapter 6?

4. What does Becca's father remind her of when she says she is going to work in Chapter 8?

5. What do the Berlins debate about Gemma's real name in Chapter 4?

6. Where are Becca's work offices housed? What were Becca's first 'real' articles at the Advocate about?

7. When she investigates her grandmother's newspaper clippings, what does Becca learn from Arnie at the Palladium Times in Oswego?

8. As she continues the story in Chapter 6, how long does Gemma say the cursed people in the story slept for?

9. What are Shana and Sylvia begging their grandmother for at the beginning of the novel?

10. In Chapter 7, what does Gemma tell Becca she will probably lose interest in after she starts school?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the struggles faced by Becca throughout the novel. What struggles does Becca face? How does she overcome them?

Essay Topic 2

Gemma's Sleeping Beauty story is an allegory of Gemma's experiences in an extermination camp during WWII. What was the Holocaust? Describe the camp Gemma was sent to. How did this experience impact her life?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the author of the novel "Briar Rose", Jane Yolen. What others works has she written? What similarities or connections can be found between this novel and Yolen's other work? How is she regarded in the literary world?

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