89 pages 2 hours read

Julius Lester

Day of Tears

Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2005

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Exam Answer Key

Multiple Choice

1. C (Chapters 2 & 7, Interlude 4)

2. B (Chapter 4)

3. A (Interlude 10)

4. D (Chapter 5)

5. D (Chapter 7)

6. B (Chapter 9)

7. D (Chapter 8)

8. C (Interlude 9)

9. C (Interlude10)

10. B (Interlude 3 & Chapter 6)

11. D (Chapter 13)

12. B (Chapter 2)

Long Answer

1. As a child, she innocently wanted to please her father and saw Sarah’s empathy as weakness because her father did. As an adult, she wholeheartedly believed in the inferiority of Black people and tried to build her life and legacy around that hatred to make her father and family proud (Interlude 3). Student interpretations may vary about themes revealed via Frances’s character, but they may discuss the way racism and other beliefs are handed down as a tradition from parent to child just as easily as values like honesty and kindness. (Various chapters)

2. Lester’s purpose was to drive home the humanity of the people being sold. Putting names and ages to the bodies for sale also adds character to the faces in the reader’s mind.