Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. How does Donna Jean get injured?

2. Why do white people accuse Mrs. Patterson (Sylvia’s mother) of “putting on airs”?

3. What shocking announcement does Gary make over an otherwise pleasant breakfast?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. In the opening scene, how do the different characters channel or express their anger? Provide 2 examples.

2. Why does Gary’s announcement startle and upset his parents?

3. How does Sylvia observe and experience racial and cultural differences between herself and her best friend, Rachel?

Paired Resources

Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum History Page

• This brief history of what occurred at Auschwitz provides historical context without harrowing images.
• Why might Mr. Zucker want to avoid being reminded of his time in Auschwitz? As you read the novel, think about how it compares to his life in Arkansas.

Emmett Till from History.com

Leo Frank from Encyclopaedia Britannica

• These articles tell the stories of Till’s and Frank’s lives, alleged crimes, and lynchings without harrowing photos.
• Why does Sylvia find it easy to draw comparisons between Black people’s and Jewish people’s experiences in America and abroad?

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. Why does Reggie say he doesn’t want to go to an integrated school?

2. Why can’t Mr. Patterson make or lay bricks at his brickyard job? What job does he do instead?

3. Who beats up Gary on his way home from the NAACP office?

4. What news does Miss Washington give to Sylvia when she pulls her out of lunch?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Sylvia feel in light of Miss Washington’s news?

2. How does Sylvia explain Miss Washington’s strictness and tough demeanor?

3. Describe how Sylvia feels about interacting with boys.

Chapters 7-9

Reading Check

1. Why does Miss Washington make a special visit to the Patterson home?

2. How does Mr. Patterson surprise his children at church the following Sunday?

3. What is Mrs. Patterson’s secret talent?

4. Who owns the grocery store where Sylvia and her family shop?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why is Sylvia selected to integrate the schools over her brother Gary, who is eager to be among those who integrate?

2. What do the church members’ responses to Sylvia’s chance to integrate the schools indicate about the community’s stance on integration?

3. How does Sylvia feel about the entry on “Negroes” in the encyclopedia?

Paired Resource

Marian Anderson’s Performance of “Ave Maria” on the Ed Sullivan Show

• Marian Anderson, an African American opera singer, was barred from performing at Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR).
• Both her talent and the incident launched her to international recognition. She went on to perform in venues all over the world, including an open-air concert at the Lincoln Memorial, which was arranged and supported by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
• How do Anderson’s story, her talent, and her story inspire hope in a girl like Sylvia during the 1950s?

How might similar discrimination have discouraged women like Sylvia’s mother from pursuing their artistic talents under America’s Jim Crow status quo?

Chapters 10-12

Reading Check

1. Which president’s inauguration did Sylvia and her family watch on television?

2. What does Donna Jean suggest Sylvia could be when she grows up?

3. What reason(s) does Reggie give for wanting Sylvia to go to Horace Mann High School instead of Central?

4. How do Reggie and Sylvia end phone calls?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Sylvia feel like she couldn’t be a beauty queen?

2. Which aspects of pop culture reinforce or influence Sylvia’s perception of her own beauty?

Paired Resources

Google Books Archives for Ebony Magazine

Google Books Archives for Jet Magazine

• Both Ebony and Jet magazines were created by African American publisher John H. Johnson in the 1940s and 1950s, respectively.
• Examine the covers and advertisements in both Ebony and Jet during the late 1950s era, when the novel takes place. What beauty standards are upheld in the magazines? Combined with Sylvia’s account, what does this pattern say about the Power of Representation?

Google Books Archives for Life magazine

• Life was one of the first mainly photographic American news magazines (as opposed to using a mix of illustrations and photos).
• Compare and contrast both the covers and the images found in Ebony and Life magazines in a given year. Combined with Sylvia’s and Rachel’s observations about the women in the magazines, what does this pattern say about the Power of Representation and the types of perceptions both girls face as they come of age?

Chapters 13-15

Reading Check

1. How did Mr. Patterson’s father die?

2. Who comes to Sylvia’s defense when she lashes out at dinner?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Sylvia respond to feeling pulled in different directions around her decision to attend Central High School?

2. Why is Sylvia angry with Reggie?

3. Why does Reggie’s hanging out with Gary and his friends make Sylvia nervous?

Chapters 16-18

Reading Check

1. Who is on the cover of the Time magazine that Sylvia’s mother brings home?

2. What gift does Sylvia hope her mother purchases with the saved stamp books?

3. What does Sylvia have to do after the list of students set to integrate Central High School gets narrowed down to 42?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Sylvia make sense of the similarities between Jewish struggles and those of Black people in America?

2. How does seeing these similarities impact Sylvia and her decision-making process with regard to integrating Central?

Paired Resource

Martin Luther King Jr. on the cover of Time magazine, February 18, 1957

• Archival access to both the cover and the contents of the issue
• What significance does seeing this image hold for Sylvia and her mother? Why do they suggest seeing it will “make a lot of white people uncomfortable”?

Chapters 19-21

Reading Check

1. Where does Sylvia experience her first kiss?

2. Who saves Sylvia and DJ from Johnny Crandall and the Smith brothers’ violent attack?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do the interviewers ask Sylvia how often she goes to the bathroom?

2. How does the school board’s questioning make Sylvia feel?

3. How does the harassment outside the library impact Sylvia?

Chapters 22-24

Reading Check

1. When the list of students integrating Central High School gets narrowed to 17, where does Sylvia’s family hope she can find some support to prepare?

2. What high honor does Sylvia receive on her last day of 9th grade?

3. What contradiction do Sylvia and DJ notice in the television show American Bandstand?

4.  What does DJ overhear Gary discussing on the phone?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1.     How do Gary and his parents differ about the sort of training Sylvia might need?

Paired Resources

“I Love You for Sentimental Reasons” by Sam Cooke on American Bandstand

• In this 3-minute video, teens on American Bandstand dance to a song by African American singer Sam Cooke.
• For teacher’s supplemental use

“Sweet Little Sixteen” performed by Chuck Berry

• In this 3-minute video, Chuck Berry performs “Sweet Little Sixteen” on Dick Clark’s Saturday Night Beechnut Show.
• Berry is another entertainer whom Sylvia references in the novel.

For teacher’s supplemental use

Photograph of Seven of the Little Rock Nine Meeting at the Home of Daisy Bates

• Daisy Bates, as mentioned in this section of the novel, held regular meetings at her home to train the Little Rock Nine (as they would become known) in nonviolent resistance.
• Readers don’t see the meetings in the novel, but they do learn that Sylvia attends these meetings until she decides not to integrate.
• For teacher’s supplemental use

Chapters 25-27

Reading Check

1. What does Mrs. Patterson ask Sylvia to get from the Zuckers’ store?

2. What happens while Rachel and Sylvia do the shopping?

3. Who is missing in the aftermath?

4. Who does Sylvia tell police she saw leaving after the second explosion?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do the events in these chapters intensify the main conflict Sylvia faces in the novel?

Chapters 28-30

Reading Check

1. What secret does Sylvia reveal the day after the fire?

2. What is Reggie’s explanation?

3. How many students end up staying on the list to integrate Central High School?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Sylvia ultimately decide not to attend Central High School?

2. How did the list go from nearly 70 to just 9 students?

Chapters 31-33

Reading Check

1. Who calls in the National Guard to prevent Black students from attending Central High School?

2. What do Sylvia and Aunt Bessie see on television?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Sylvia stay home on the second day of school? Discuss her feelings at this point in this story.

Chapter 34-Author’s Note

Reading Check

1. Where do Sylvia and Gary go when they skip school?

2. What happens when they ride to Central High School with “The Nine” on that day?

3. Who calls in the Army to force the school to integrate?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to the Author’s Note, what happened after the events of the novel?

Recommended Next Reads

Warriors Don’t Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals

• Beals’s memoir recounts her time as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of students to integrate Central High School.
• Shared topics include the integration of schools in Little Rock and the racism that surrounded it.
• Shared themes include Courage and Community.
• Warriors Don’t Cry on SuperSummary

Brown v. Board of Education: A Fight for Simple Justice by Susan Goldman Rubin

• Rubin’s highly readable, informative text covers the history of the Supreme Court case and decision.
• Provides a long view of school integration history leading up to Brown v. Board of Education, including how the case was made up of five separate cases, the mindsets of the lawyers arguing the case, and the test cases that were fought in court before going to the Supreme Court
• Provides deep insight into the legal process and taking a case to the nation’s highest court