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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. Which animal does the boy meet third?

2. What is the boy's reason to keep going?

3. What accident happened to one of the drawings in the book?

4. Who does the boy think believes in him more than he believes in himself?

5. What advice does the narrator give on the page where the boy, the mole, and the fox sit staring at a crescent moon?

Short Essay Questions

1. There are two separate sets of pictures of the four friends playing together. What is different about the second set of images?

2. What do the mole and the horse teach the boy about perfection?

3. What does the boy say about doing "nothing" with friends, (47), and what causes him to say it?

4. When the boy points out that the fox hardly ever talks, what does the fox say, and how does the horse react?

5. When the boy realizes that his friends know all about him, what does he ask and what do they answer?

6. How does the art change when the boy falls into the water?

7. What is funny about the answer to the boy's question about the moon?

8. What is funny about one of the drawings that is about perfection?

9. What lesson does the horse teach the boy about courage?

10. The horse asks the other three what their reasons are for keeping going. What do they say?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The boy, the fox, the mole, and the horse can each be understood to stand for a particular kind of person. Choose one of them and explain what type of "real world" person they stand for. Give evidence from the story to help your reader understand your ideas.

Essay Topic 2

The pairing of words and images is important in this book. Choose a page on which there are both image and text and write about how the two relate to one another: be sure to explain why the two together communicate more than either one would alone.

Essay Topic 3

What does "home" mean to the boy, and what does it mean to you?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 789 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample