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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. When Ana asks Joaquin if he will tell Maya and Grace about his psychiatric episode, what is his reply?

2. How much more money on average does Joaquin say it takes in adoption fees to adopt a white baby, versus a baby of color?

3. What is NOT on the list of things Maya means to do in the two years or so?

4. The night Lauren asks Maya about their parents' possible divorce, what thought keeps Maya awake all night?

5. Max's father tells Grace's parents that Max is dating what kind of girl now?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does the father of Grace's daughter spend the night of the homecoming dance?

2. What causes Grace to lie to Maya and Joaquin about her lengthy absence from school?

3. How does the author demonstrate the difference between Grace's high school days before Peach and her experiences at school after Peach's birth?

4. What is ironic about Grace's television-watching habits prior to becoming pregnant with Peach?

5. What two aspects of Maya's own identity does she think about during her long sleepless night after meeting Joaquin?

6. What simile does the narrator use to depict the careful way in which Grace's father tells her that she has biological siblings?

7. What has always been the strategy Grace's parents have used in regards to her status as an adopted child?

8. What aspect of Maya's character causes her to qualify as a member of a marginalized community?

9. What are a few characteristics of the adoptive parents Grace chooses for Peach and what is one detail about them that particularly pleases her?

10. What does the tattoo across the shoulders of one of Joaquin's older foster brothers symbolize?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Sensory details are used frequently by the author in order to create vivid pictures of each sibling's character and progression through the narrative. Choose three scenes in which sensory details are heavily used and discuss how the sensory details used by the author set a particular mood for each of the three scenes.

Essay Topic 2

Trace the characterization arc of Grace’s character throughout the novel. Discuss whether she is a round or flat character and whether she is a static or dynamic character.

Essay Topic 3

William Faulkner once famously claimed that the most important literature deals with the subject of the human heart in conflict with itself. Explain how the theme of Human versus Self is demonstrated within Robin Benway's novel Far From the Tree. Create a decisive, arguable claim and prove it with quotes from the book.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,238 words (approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample