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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 coming out of the hands of a young girl in a photograph Jacob finds?

2. What does Jacob learn about "the Home" when he arrives on the island?

3. Who do the police send to work with Jacob?

4. What does Jacob say he will do when his grandfather calls?

5. What does Jacob become more curious about as he gets older?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does Jacob's father explain Abe's stories?

2. How does Jacob open the locked trunk he finds in Chapter 5?

3. How do Jacob's parents try to calm Jacob after his grandfather’s death and what does he think of the effort?

4. Why does Jacob run out of the Priest's Hole in Chapter 5? Who does he encounter, and what does she do?

5. What does Jacob say about his grandfather and a special school in the Prologue?

6. How does Jacob get to his grandfather's house in Chapter 1, and what does he see along the way?

7. What does Miss Peregrine say about ymbrynes?

8. Where do Ricky and Jacob find Abe and what does Abe tell Jacob?

9. How is the last leg of the journey to Cairnholm accomplished, and what do Jacob and his father see in the waters along the way?

10. What does Jacob convince his parents that he should do to help him recover from Abe's death?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Often, authors will write about "what they know," and sometimes knowing a little about the author makes the books more interesting. Discuss the following:

1. Give a brief biographical sketch of Ransom Riggs.

2. What in Riggs's background may have helped him in writing Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children? What may have influenced the way he depicts various characters and scenes?

3. Do you think there is always some of the author's own life in his/her novels? Why or why not? Give examples.

Essay Topic 2

Many novels, and perhaps a majority, end on a happy note. Discuss the following:

1. Why do you think many people want what they perceive as a happy or good ending to a novel? Explain your opinion. Do you? Why or why not?

2. What are three reasons to read fiction? Discuss each one in light of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and whether or not it fulfills all three, two, or one of the reasons you mention. Give examples as to why Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is or is not successful in fulfilling the reasons you discuss.

3. Do you think reading solely for entertainment is as good a reason to read as any other? Why or why not? Can any work of fiction or non-fiction, no matter how poorly written, enlighten, teach, and stimulate thought? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 3

In Chapter 5 one of the photos is that of a tunnel with a light coming from its mouth. This photo is particularly interesting, in that it has significant metaphoric value with a couple of possible, but related, meanings. On the one hand, a long dark tunnel is often evocative of both the human birth canal and the journey new beings take down it. Also, the "light at the end of the tunnel" is a phrase/image often used to evoke hope, or possibility. Finally, there is the evocation of death.

1. Do you think everyone who moves into a new phase in life goes from darkness into light? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. Why would shedding light on the secrets of Abe's life provide hope to Jacob? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. Jacob's moving into a new life was precipitated by the death of someone he loved. Do you think all growth has to have some traumatic event to occur before growth can begin? Why or why not?

(see the answer keys)

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