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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 does their grandfather want most to do when he is young?

2. What do the girls want from Sylvie?

3. Where have Lily and Nona found Sylvie?

4. What kind of food does Sylvie generally make for dinner?

5. What do the girls tell Lily and Nona about why they were outside with Sylvie?

Short Essay Questions

1. How do Lily and Nona feel toward each other?

2. What do Lily and Nona decide to do about being in Fingerbone?

3. How do Lily and Nona feel about children?

4. What happens to the narrator's grandmother after her husband is killed?

5. What happens to the town the second week that Sylvie is in Fingerbone?

6. What story does Sylvie tell during their stay upstairs to escape the flood waters? How do Ruth and Lucille react?

7. How do you think the girls might be feeling when they figure out their Aunts Lily and Nona don't want them?

8. What does the narrator say about her grandfather's youth in the first chapter?

9. What do the girls like about Sylvie as far as their mother is concerned?

10. What do the girls know about Sylvie after one day in the house?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Do think Sylvie is mentally ill? Use examples from the book to support your position.

Essay Topic 2

Why do you think Sylvie became frantic that Ruth might be taken from her? Support your opinion with evidence from the book.

Essay Topic 3

Compare the physical setting of the novel, Fingerbone, with the events that have been shown in the sister's lives in chapter one. How does one reflect the other? What foreshadowing to the rest of the narrator's life, might be gleaned from the descriptions of Fingerbone and the types of events common in that town?

(see the answer keys)

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