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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. What does Lorelei interrupt Meg's homework to insist she come look at outside one day?

2. When she is about sixteen, why does Meg feel jealousy toward Beth?

3. When Meg and Molly enter Bird House after Lorelei's death, where do they realize she has been sleeping?

4. When Beth comes in from her run and sees her father, her mother, and Vicky fighting, what are they fighting over?

5. When Meg is pregnant with Molly and calls her family on Easter, what is she most angry about?

Short Essay Questions

1. In the early years of her relationship with Lorelei, how does Vicky view Lorelei, and how does she view Lorelei's children?

2. What lie does Vicky tell Meg about Lorelei's hoarding during Easter of 1999, and why does she tell this lie?

3. What surprises Beth about Molly's existence, and what does it make her realize about herself?

4. When Molly asks Meg whether she would have liked Rhys,what is Meg's response?

5. How does the perspective shift between Meg and Beth after Meg tries to call Beth back clarify Beth's intentions in calling and her reasons for not answering when Meg calls back?

6. When Meg and Molly go in to start clearing out Lorelei's house, why is it such a relief to them when they reach the landing of the stairs?

7. Based on Lorelei's emails, what seems to be true about her own childhood and its impact on the way she parents her own children?

8. What is Alfie's full name, and what is its significance?

9. Even though she is disgusted by her own behavior, why does Beth think she cannot give up her affair with Bill?

10. What similarities does Meg see between Alfie and Rhys, and when was she most worried about these similarities?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the nature of the symbolic relationship between Lorelei Bird and Bird House? Does the house symbolize Lorelei, or an aspect of her? Or is the house more like another character in the story, one that Lorelei has a relationship with that is even more important to her than her relationships with people? Write an essay that considers Bird House as a setting and how the changes in this setting over time shed light on Lorelei and her family. Your essay should make and defend a clear claim about the symbolic nature of the relationship between Lorelei and her home. Support your ideas with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 2

On page 142, Beth says that her family members are "like a badly planned dinner party." What does she mean? Do you agree? What are the differences among them that she would point to? What deeper things do they have in common? Write an essay in which you consider how different the Birds really are from one another and what significance exists in the attributes they share. Support your claims with evidence drawn from throughout the text.

Essay Topic 3

After Beth witnesses the scene between her mother and her father and Vicky in Chapter 7, she goes upstairs to her own room. What is it that so disturbs her about the appearance of her room? What does it imply about her? How does juxtaposing her dawning realizations about her own room and herself with the scene between her parents and Vicky create a sense of urgency and help the reader understand Beth's decision to try again with Jason? Write an essay in which you analyze how the details in and structure of this section of Chapter 7 allows the reader to more fully understand Beth's panic and her choice to attempt a relationship with Jason.

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