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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How did Janisse and her siblings get access to books which they knew would garner their father's disapproval?
(a) They bought them from garage sales and sneaked them home in their backpacks.
(b) They waited for the Bookmobile to make a stop in town and spent hours inside the van reading forbidden titles.
(c) They borrowed them from friends and read them only in the junkyard when their father was not around.
(d) They sneaked them home from the library within their clothes and sandwiched them between acceptable volumes.

2. What is NOT one of the dangers Janisse's father Frank mentions when warning the children about the treacherous junkyard?
(a) Poisoning.
(b) A bad cut.
(c) Plague.
(d) Lockjaw.

3. What constituted Janisse's and her brothers' very favorite game within the junkyard?
(a) Playing church.
(b) Making believe they were car salespeople.
(c) Chasing each other along the tops of salvaged cars.
(d) Pretending to be paramedics saving car accident victims.

4. When Charlie somehow got out of the mental institution to which Clyo had him committed, how did she persuade him to leave the family home again?
(a) By telling him that he could live in the old van down by the river.
(b) By telling him that the children would be better off without him.
(c) By calling the police and threatening to have him recommitted.
(d) By giving him all the money she had.

5. In Chapter 4, Built by Fire, what two natural elements does Janisse pit against one another in her personification-laden story?
(a) Humans and longleaf pines.
(b) Longleaf pines and lightning.
(c) Rivers and grasslands.
(d) Swamps and monsoons.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Dell, Janisse's brother, claim to have seen men stealing from the junkyard in the middle of the night?

2. What expensive item did Frank buy for the household in order to foster his childrens' interest in knowledge and learning?

3. For how many years does Janisse say her family had been in Appling County, Georgia?

4. What chore done before a thunderstorm does Janisse use in the Introduction as a metaphor for the Georgian people seeing everything coming before it happens?

5. Why did the town of Brunswick have a distinctive smell?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why did Janisse look forward so much to the days when Frank shopped at Winn-Dixie?

2. What elements did Frank consider crucial to the business of buying?

3. On page 79, Janisse includes the text of a letter her father Frank wrote to her. In the letter, Frank wrote that he was thankful for his mental illness and that it had taught him seven lessons. What were three of those lessons he said mental illness had taught him?

4. What is the effect on the reader when in the chapter entitled Junkyard, Janisse writes, "I was six the year mental illness stole my father," (77) and how does the author create that effect?

5. What are some ways in which Janisse shows her parents that she is a tomboy who likes to be outside in nature more than she enjoys any other activities?

6. How does Janisse describe her feelings toward her father when he was mentally unwell?

7. What is the author's purpose in relating the fact that her parents told their children false stories about their births?

8. The second sentence of the chapter entitled Timber says, "About the same time, the production of naval stores in North Carolina began to wane and big turpentine producers in North Carolina sashayed into Georgia" 99). What is the effect of the author's choice of the verb "sashayed" and what is her purpose in making that choice?

9. Why were the conditions so favorable for Frank's junkyard business to make money?

10. How is foreshadowing used within Janisse's relation of how she used to love to play teacher with her brothers or even with her dolls?

(see the answer keys)

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