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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. How does Shawn interact with Cindy while having an out-of-body experience?

2. What kind of prize does his father win?

3. At the premiere reading of the poem, who is referred to as "Bing-Bong"?

4. What is Shawn's good news?

5. Shawn especially enjoys interacting with Becky when she places him where every day?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Lindy say to her friend Connie about her feelings toward Sydney's abandonment of the family?

2. How does Shawn describe his father?

3. Why does Shawn say that he has looked into death's eyes?

4. In Chapter 5, Shawn notes that his father has been a public figure because of the poem he writes about Shawn. Name three things that fame brings to Shawn's father.

5. How much control does Shawn have over his seizures?

6. What kinds of things is Shawn able to remember using his gift?

7. How does seeing the death of the dog make Shawn feel?

8. Describe what the special education class at Shoreline High School is like according to Shawn, and how the students behave.

9. What does Shawn consider ironic about his actual intelligence and the assumed level of his intelligence within his class at school?

10. What is the little ritual that Shawn's father performs every time he visits Shawn?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Paul and his father have both evidenced the desire to protect Shawn. Write a brief essay comparing and contrasting Paul and Sydney with regard to their sense of responsibility to protect Shawn. How are they the same and how do they differ? What concrete actions do they take to protect him? What actions can you predict they might take in the future? Will these actions in fact protect Shawn? Why or why not? Provide examples from the novel to support your assertion.

Essay Topic 2

Shawn's mother calls his brother and sister into the living room, to tell Paul and Cindy that their father is working on the Earl Detraux project. Describe the reaction of Cindy and Paul to their father's latest project and the talk show.

Part 1) What is Cindy's reaction to her father's latest project, both before and after the kids discuss it with their mother. Does she already know about Detraux? What does she think about what Earl does? What does she think about her father's involvement in this topic, and to what does she attribute his involvement? Consider the same questions for Paul.

Part 2) Describe the difference in how Cindy and Paul react to their father's project after they discuss the topic with their mother.

Essay Topic 3

At the end of the novel, Sydney McDaniel comes into the room, sits down, and takes a quilted pillow from Shawn's oversized crib. Sydney cries as he speaks to Shawn and then confesses that he does not know what to do. Shawn is suddenly able to focus on his father and he thinks he finally connects with his father. Then Shawn has a seizure and floats away, realizing that he is flying free either way. So the novel ends without answering the question of whether Sydney kills Shawn. Is logical that Shawn has a seizure when he does in this chapter? Why or why not? What is the function of the seizure in this chapter? Did the author chose a cowardly or lazy way to end this novel? If not, why is it appropriate that the novel ends without answering the questions of whether Sydney kills Shawn?

(see the answer keys)

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