View a FREE sample

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

Short Answer Questions

1. What is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea?

2. In Chapter 8, Tara's father spends more and more time and energy transforming the American Legion into "a community center filled with life, laughter and piles of" what?

3. In Chapter 2, Tara awakes from a nightmare in which what is coming through her neighborhood?

4. How old is Tara when she meets Donna in Chapter 11?

5. What is the name of Tara's little sister?

Short Essay Questions

1. How has Tara's erratic behavior evolved at the beginning of Chapter 4? What does Tara do about her condition?

2. How have Tara's relationships with her friends changed by seventh grade?

3. How does Tara describe her relationship to religion in Chapter 2?

4. How is the character of Greta depicted in Chapter 7?

5. How are the relationships between Tara and her friends described in Chapter 7?

6. How does Tara feel after the incident at the carnival in Chapter 10? What new fear has arisen?

7. What does Tara relate about her family and her relationship with her father in Chapter 8?

8. How do Tara and their friends describe their personal fears in Chapter 3?

9. How does Tara find security in religion, as illustrated in Chapter 6?

10. How does Tara describe her relationship with her mother in Chapter 2? How does she describe her friends?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Define theme in narrative literature, and analyze the theme of isolation in the novel. How does Tara's character exhibit isolation? How has Tara become more isolated than ever before in Chapter 9? Is Tara's isolation self-inflicted? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Describe and analyze Tara Sullivan as the protagonist of "Kissing Doorknobs". How old is Tara in Chapter 1? What can be discerned about her personality? How does Tara evolve and grow as a character throughout the narrative? How old is Tara at the end of the book?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the theme of fear and Tara's fears in the narrative. What has led to Tara's fear of losing her parents? How is Tara's condition affected when her father is hospitalized? How does the isolation from her friends affect Tara? What does Tara claim her greatest fear is in the novel?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 966 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample