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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 kind of party does Sally have?

2. What is one of Marlee's fears that prevents her from feeling comfortable doing the thing Liz asks her to try for the first time in Chapter 36?

3. What disease does Marlee get in January of 1959?

4. Why is Marlee's mother unable to go to the zoo with her in Chapter 47?

5. What does Marlee finally tell her mother in Chapter 37?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why is Marlee so upset when her mother suggests she tutor JT in math?

2. What did Marlee hope would come of her writing down a Bible verse and putting it in her mother's purse?

3. What does Red do at the Christmas parade that upsets Marlee?

4. Why does Marlee walk into the woods when she realizes JT and Red have followed her to the rock crusher?

5. What does Mrs. Dalton, JT's mother, tell the WEC women about why she is there helping the group?

6. What did Betty Jean tell Marlee about what the NAACP had advised Negroes about sending their children to private segregated schools?

7. What does Marlee's mother tell her about the origins of Marlee's name when she gives her the letter opener on her birthday?

8. What is the reason Marlee's father gives when she asks him why he helped Curtis get out of jail?

9. How does Marlee feel about Liz's budding relationship with Curtis?

10. What does Marlee tell her mother when her mother comes to pick her up from Sally's roller-skating party?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Levine uses the terms of the era to describe black people that are not considered acceptable today, including the words "colored" and "Negro." Levine also has several characters use the highly offensive racial slur "nigger." Write an essay analyzing the effect of the author's choice to use such a powerful word and explain how her use of the word informs the readers' perception of the characters who say it.

Essay Topic 2

When pro-segregation protesters rallied against integration in Little Rock in 1958, Marlee's father remembers that they caused terrible disruption and fear, largely because the local police did not deter or arrest them. But in 1959, Marlee and her father witness the police responding much more effectively to the segregationists, making many arrests and clearing the streets (286). Write an essay exploring why Levine chose to close the book with this scene and the tone she was likely trying to convey in doing so.

Essay Topic 3

In the beginning of the book, Marlee's mother Maurine initially opposes school integration, but by the novel's end she actively supports it. Write an essay analyzing the evolution of Marlee's mother's ideas about integration and racial equality.

(see the answer keys)

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