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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. Who is referred to as being trapped at Shawn's house all night?

2. In the stanza of the poem at the beginning of Chapter 15, what is falling?

3. Right before bed in Chapter 14, how is Shawn feeling?

4. What are the two ruffians asking about for when they threaten Shawn?

5. While at the Pacific Science Center, Shawn indicates someone "looks a lot more 'mad' back then." Who is Shawn referring to?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the Annie-Sullivan-meeting-Helen Keller-in-The Miracle-Worker routine and what does Shawn think about it?

2. How does Shawn react to meeting his sister's friend Ally, and why?

3. What is apparent about the relationship between Paul and his father after Paul finds out that his father wants him to go on the Alice Ponds show?

4. What does Shawn try to tell his father over and over again in Chapter 16, and why?

5. Paul and Shawn's mother have opposite views about Sydney, Shawn's father. Who does Shawn agree with and what is his opinion of his father?

6. In Chapter 14, Shawn dreams that his father sees angels. What is the significance of the angels?

7. How does Shawn describe the African animal mobile that hangs over his bed, and why does he describe it in this manner?

8. What is in Shawn's father's bedroom that is reminiscent of the virtual ride through the cosmos at the science center and why is this significant?

9. What does Shawn mean when he says that "invisibility has its advantages" when it comes to girls?

10. Paul and Cindy discuss their father's appearance on The Alice Ponds Show. What do they think about what their father says on the show?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Shawn remembers attending the reading of the Pulitzer Prize winning poem that Sydney McDaniel writes. Why does Shawn become uncharacteristically annoyed on the night of the poem reading? Are there any aspects of the reading that do not annoy him? Name at least three reasons for each and explain Shawn's feelings in each case.

Essay Topic 2

When Shawn's father shows up at his class with a cameraman to tape footage for a PBS special on "Appropriate Allocation Decisions in an Era of Diminishing Funding," what are the similarities and differences between Shawn's father's beliefs and actions with those of Shawn's teacher and teacher's aides and how does Shawn feel about these people?

Part 1) What is the approach of Shawn's teacher and aids to the students in the class? What does Shawn think about these characters and why? How do these characters react to Shawn's father and his documentary? Why?

Part 2) While Sydney McDaniel is videotaping his special for PBS, what does he say about educating people who "cannot learn?" What does Shawn think about the points that his father makes? What in particular that his father says catches Shawn's interest in a big way?

Part 3) What are there similarities or differences between Shawn's father and the classroom teacher and aides regarding the way they think about and treat the children? What are they and why do they exist?

Essay Topic 3

One evening, Shawn is left with Vonda, his respite care provider. That evening, lying alone in the dark, Shawn hears his father come into the house. Vonda is a fan of Mr. McDaniel and asks for an autograph. How is Vonda's behavior toward Shawn and Sydney symbolic of the way they each are treated by the general population? How did this dichotomy come about? How does it affect Shawn's quality of life in general? What might it mean in particular on the night that Shawn's father's orders are followed unquestioningly? Provide examples from the novel to back up your point of view.

(see the answer keys)

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