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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. Aside from Sophie, how many people are going on the sailing trip across the ocean?

2. What color is the sky when The Wanderer arrives at Seal Cove?

3. What one thing does Sophie like about moving?

4. What do the travelers use to practice juggling?

5. Where did Joey find the boat he fixed up?

Short Essay Questions

1. What does Frank's wife call Sophie?

2. What happens to the car in Sophie's story about Bompie?

3. What does Sophie initially plan to do the last day of school?

4. Describe Uncle Mo.

5. How do the three brothers react when Brian asks if Stew has heard Sophie's baptism story before?

6. What story does Sophie tell Cody about a little kid she knows?

7. How long have Sophie's uncles wanted to sail across the ocean?

8. What does Uncle Dock call and tell Sophie about their planned departure?

9. What habit of speech does Cody have that annoys most of the people on the boat?

10. What does Uncle Dock give Sophie's mother, that encourages Sophie's mother to let her daughter go on the trip?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

The characters argue with each other throughout the novel. Discuss the significance of arguments in the novel.

1) Why do some characters argue more than others? What causes Mo and Stew to argue? What causes Brian and Cody to argue?

2) What causes conflict and argument between Mo and Cody? What does this say about their relationship as father and son?

3) How are arguments different before the major storm, during the storm, and after the storm?

Essay Topic 2

The sea and The Wanderer are the main settings of this novel. Discuss setting and its importance in the novel.

1) Why is the sea the main setting of the novel? In what ways is the sea personified in the novel? What does Sophie expect from it? How does she respond to it?

2) How does The Wanderer function as a setting of the novel? What does the boat contribute to the novel? Why does the author set the novel on this boat?

3) How does setting affect the beginning and end of the journey, when the characters are in Kentucky, Grand Manan, Ireland, England, and elsewhere? How are these settings different from the sea and The Wanderer?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the importance of family in the novel.

1) How does Sophie's status as an orphan affect her sense of family? Is she, in some ways, not part of the family? How do her parents and Bompie make her part of their family?

2) How does family help build identity? How does family help the characters have a sense of themselves and their place in the world?

3) How does Sophie lose her birth family even more because of her repressed memories? How does the loss of these memories, in addition to the death of her parents and grandfather, affect her?

4) What is Cody's relationship with his father like? What does their relationship reveal about family?

(see the answer keys)

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