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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. After how many months in a concentration camp is Josef's father released?

2. What reason does Isabel's father give for forbidding anyone to strike a match even though their boat is about to be hit by a tanker?

3. What does Ivan want to be when he grows up?

4. The third major character focused upon within the novel's narrative is Mahmoud, a boy living in Syria. What year is it when the reader first joins Mahmoud?

5. Even though Fidel Castro announces to the Cuban people that they are now free to leave Cuba whenever they want, why is Isabel's mother still especially wary about the trip?

Short Essay Questions

1. List some of Isabel's and the other boat passengers' expectations of what life will be like in America.

2. Why does Mahmoud's family choose Germany as a place to run to when they leave Syria?

3. What are the only items that Isabel and the other passengers on the tiny boat have room to bring with them on the journey to Florida from Cuba?

4. How does Mahmoud feel about invisibility?

5. What event is just about to happen when the motor of Isabel's family's boat splutters and dies?

6. What U.S. policies change and make it harder for Cuban people to seek refuge in the United States?

7. What is the author's purpose for characterizing the Nazis terrorizing Josef's family as "shadows"? (1)

8. How does the author go about portraying Mahmoud as an empathetic soul?

9. How does Josef feel about invisibility?

10. What does Mahmoud buy for his little brother Waleed at a shop in the Turkish refugee camp and what does he hope to achieve with his purchase?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the novel's message concerning the link between ignorance and hatred?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's inclusion of one of the following motifs within the novel: sound, images of leaders' faces, or music.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how the author goes about building the readers' compassion for the refugees featured in the narrative.

(see the answer keys)

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