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 does Mrs. Fisher expect will happen on September 6 due to Mike's death?

2. What does Paul do when conversation about Erik and football starts?

3. What does the group of boys Paul sees at the carnival have with them?

4. What time of the morning does Paul and his mother leave their former city?

5. Where does Paul's mother want to send him to school?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where does Paul's mother take him on Monday and what does she do there?

2. Why is Paul called into the principal's office the Monday after his trip to the carnival and what does Paul do?

3. What changes in Tangerine does Paul foresee and what does he think about himself and changes?

4. Where does Paul go on his bike and what does he see about their subdivision?

5. What news does Erik tell Paul and Mrs. Fisher when Erik comes home from school on Tuesday?

6. What does Paul say about how his mother has arranged their move?

7. What does Paul's mother think will happen about Mike's death and what actually happens? What does Paul wonder about Joey?

8. What do the parents of the football players decide to do and how does the coach respond to their suggestion?

9. What makes the noise Paul hears when he leaves the principal's office and what do the students do about it?

10. How did Erik learn to kick and what did Mr. Fisher do when Erik started playing football?

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. Research and give a brief biographical sketch of Edward Bloor.

2. What in Bloor's background may have helped him in writing Tangerine? 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

Erik pointing out that the "farm labor kids" have been invited to town. Paul urges Tino to ignore them, but Tino can't, and when he confronts Erik, Erik hits him full in the face with his fist.

1. It has been said that people who are prejudice or make fun of others are doing it out of their own sense of inferiority. Do you agree or not agree with this? Why or why not? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

2. What might be the situation in Tino's life that makes it difficult for him to ignore Erik's taunts? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

3. What do you think Erik hitting such a younger boy with his fist says about Erik's character? Use examples from the text and your own life to support your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss one of the following:

1. Trace and analyze the theme of growth in Tangerine. Consider the following questions as you write: What characters are most concerned with growth? Why? What are some symbols of growth? Symbols of rigidity? What characters seem rigid?

2. Trace and analyze the theme of courage in Tangerine. Which characters struggle with this issue? Why? Which characters seem to possess courage? Why?

3. Trace and analyze the theme of death in Tangerine. Consider the death of Mike as an random act of nature and the death of Luis as the result of conscious violence. Consider also in your answer the death of innocence in Paul from the beginning of the book to the end.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,157 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample