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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. What is the group that Joyce is a member of called?

2. What is wrong with the baby Joyce helped deliver the night Ava arrived?

3. With whom is Ava spending a lot of time in her second month?

4. Why is Aretha one of Joyce's favorite girls from the Sewing Circus?

5. What is one of Ava's big objections to Baptist teachings?

Short Essay Questions

1. What do Joyce and Ava do the night Gerry brought the envelope to the house?

2. Describe Ava Johnson and her devastating problem.

3. What does Ava tell Joyce when she returns from Eddie's after the Sewing Circus?

4. How are the two sisters reacting to Imani's presence in the house?

5. How does Joyce demonstrate condoms and what happens while she's doing it?

6. Why did the Sewing Circus meeting a Joyce's house go so well?

7. What does Eddie tell Ava about his jail sentence?

8. How does Ava feel about going to church with Joyce and what does she notice about the new preacher?

9. Where does Ava live at the beginning of the book and what kind of benefits does that place offer?

10. What kind of people did Ava hang with and what was Ava's main problem with that social circle?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Eddie succumbed to the lowest depths of the drug and street lifestyle and ended up committing murder, for which he paid with ten years of his life. Fortunately, Eddie had found redemption after adversity, though there is also a sense that Eddie still walks a fine line to maintain his forward focus.

1. What do you think is meant by redemption after adversity? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

2. Why do you think Eddie still walks a fine line to maintain his forward focus? Use examples from the book to support your answer.

3. Why do you think people like Eddie decide to change and are able to do so? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 2

Joyce asks for the opportunity to address the boys herself. Joyce symbolizes the compassion and understanding that is so lacking in the lives of these kids, whose futures seem dim if they don't receive some sort of positive intervention.

1. What do you think is meant by this statement? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Do you think compassion is more powerful than punishment in changing a person? Why or why not?

3. If your house was vandalized by kids what would you want to do about it?

Essay Topic 3

Cleage makes the case for an alternate view on the stereotypes assigned to black people by introducing people like Joyce, Ava and Eddie, whose goodness may be challenged at times but is always at the core of what they do.

1. What do you think is meant by this statement? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What do you think people can do to not judge others by stereotypes? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. How do you think stereotypes get started and how can they be stopped? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,014 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample