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 Helen do after the girls settle on their grandmother's porch?

2. Why does the town of Fingerbone flood?

3. What do the aunts think about the rumors concerning Sylvie's instability?

4. Why does Sylvie think the woman with four children is alone?

5. How does Ruth get Sylvie to come upstairs?

Short Essay Questions

1. Where do the girls go after the flood water recedes and what happens there?

2. How does Sylvie feel about Ruth and Lucille going to school?

3. What do the girls like about Sylvie as far as their mother is concerned?

4. Where does the narrator's grandfather end up when he leaves home and what happens to him there?

5. What do the girls see at the lake while skipping school?

6. How do Lily and Nona feel toward each other?

7. What are the attitudes of Ruth and Lucille towards Sylvie's eccentricities?

8. What does the grandmother plan to do with the girls when she dies?

9. What does Ruth and Lucille's mother do after she leaves them on the front porch?

10. How do Lily and Nona feel about being in Fingerbone and caring for Ruth and Lucille?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What do you think would have happened to Ruth and Lucille if they had been born in 1995 instead in the late 1940's or early 1950's? How would that differ from what happened to them in the book?

Essay Topic 2

Sylvie goes into a frantic mode to try and convince the town that she is capable of caring for Ruth. Do you think people can change that fast? Do you think people, once they are adults, can change at all? Support your position with illustrations from the book and your own life.

Essay Topic 3

Sylvie comes home after Lucille yelled at her with huckleberries and made pancakes for the girls. Why do you think she did this?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 788 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample