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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. Why is Sani mad at his mother in Part II?

2. What does Moth do first thing every morning for the ancestors?

3. What does Sani tell Moth he thinks of her name?

4. Where does Moth go after she gets back from looking through Sani's windows in Part II?

5. What does Sani break when he comes to Moth's house, upset, in Part II?

Short Essay Questions

1. Why does Moth's grandfather say she dances so well?

2. What are the most important items on Aunt Jack's list of rules?

3. What does Moth imagine would happen if she went to therapy?

4. What is impossible for even the greatest rootworkers to do, according to Moth?

5. What begins to lessen Moth's fixation on the terrible memories of her car accident?

6. Why does Moth think she might not hate this coming summer as much as she has hated the past two?

7. What were moths originally attracted to before lightbulbs or flames, according to Moth?

8. What does Moth articulate as the significance of names, in general, in Part I?

9. What happened to Moth two summers before the start of the novel?

10. How has the car accident Moth survived changed how she thinks about summer?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

How do both Moth and Sani react differently to feelings and acts of abandonment by caregivers? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 2

Why does Sani abandon Moth toward the end of their road trip, just before they reach his father's house? How does Moth find her way back to forgiving Sani for this betrayal? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

Essay Topic 3

What connections or relationships do you think McBride seeks to draw between art and pain in this novel? Write an essay explaining your answers, citing specific references to the text to help support your conclusions.

(see the answer keys)

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