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 Yolanda think about all day?

2. What does Romulus ask of Andrew?

3. What does Yolanda do to the biggest bully at school?

4. Who came into the school with a gun?

5. How does Yolanda make the rest of the kids feel?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is one terrible thing that has happened lately?

2. What is Yolanda thinking about as the novel opens?

3. What is the other terrible thing that has happened recently?

4. Why does Momma decide to move from Chicago?

5. Who is Andrew's teacher and why is she scolding him?

6. How does Yolanda feel in Michigan and why?

7. Who is impressed by Yolanda and why?

8. How does Andrew become confused when Miss Gilluly shows him a picture of a dog?

9. Describe Andrew's encounter with the drug pushers at Asphalt Hill.

10. What does Shirley say about double-dutch that causes Yolanda great discomfort?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In most fiction, readers would like all the loose ends to be neatly "tied up." Discuss the following:

1. Do you think "Yolonda's Genius" is successful as a learning tool? Why or why not.

2. What about this book would motivate you to read another of Carol Fenner's western novels? What would discourage you from doing so?

3. Were all the "loose ends" satisfactorily settled for you? Why or why not?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss one of the following:

1. Thoroughly analyze how the setting informs the plot in "Yolonda's Genius".

2. Trace and analyze one major theme of "Yolonda's Genius". How is the theme represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

3. Trace and analyze two secondary themes of "Yolonda's Genius". How are the themes represented by symbolism? By the characters' behaviors? By the action?

Essay Topic 3

Yolanda is eleven throughout much of the novel. Discuss the following:

1. What are some ways that Yolanda seems like an average eleven year old? Give examples and why you say her activities are average teen activities.

2. What are some ways that Yolanda seems older than her age of 11? Give specific examples and discuss whether they seem consistent with the character of Yolanda as she is developed throughout the book.

3. Do you think most eleven year old girls would look out for their six-year-old brother in the ways Yolanda does? Why or why not.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 781 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample