St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves

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

“Ava Wrestles the Alligator”

Reading Check

1. What are all of the alligators at Swamplandia called?

2. What does Ava call the man she meets in the swamp?

Short Answer

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

1. When Ava returns to Swamplandia from her meeting with the man in the swamp, what does she do for the first time?

2. On the morning after the Swamp Prom, what does Ossie’s note say about Ossie’s whereabouts?

“Haunting Olivia”

Reading Check

1. Where do Timothy and Wallow find the “diabolical goggles”?

2. What is Wallow’s real name?

Short Answer

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

1. What happened to Olivia?

2. What does the encounter with the ghosts of the shrimp convince the boys might be true about their sister?

Paired Resource

“How a Queer Fabulism Came to Dominate Contemporary Women’s Writing”

• This seminal article on feminism and fabulism explores how female fabulists create texts where marginalized groups’ intangible emotional and intellectual concerns manifest themselves in the physical world.
• This resource relates to the theme of Trauma.
• What is Haggard’s core argument about the tools that fabulism offers authors from marginalized communities? How does she distinguish fabulism from magical realism? How do you see Haggard’s ideas reflected in “Ava Wrestles the Alligator” and “Haunting Olivia”?

“Z. Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers”

Reading Check

1. What famous person is the insomnia balloon named after?

2. What were Ogli and Elijah misdiagnosed with at first?

Short Answer

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

1. What sleep disorder do Ogli and Elijah share?

2. What is Elijah’s concern about disposing of Merino’s body in the sinkhole?

“The Star-Gazer’s Log of Summer-Time Crime”

Reading Check

1. What is Oliver’s twin’s name?

2. What nicknames has Oliver’s father given to Oliver and his twin?

Short Answer

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

1. What item of Ollie’s does Raffy pick up on the beach, and what does Raffy decide to do with this item?

2. How does the motif of sexual assault recur in “The Star-Gazer’s Log of Summer-Time Crime”?

Paired Resource

“Why People Fear Growing Up and Functioning as Adults”

• This article by psychologist and researcher Robert W. Firestone discusses five sources of fear young people may have to contend with in order to mature. [Note: This article expresses a perspective on religion that might be controversial in some teaching environments; you may want to offer students an abridged version.]
• This resource relates to the theme of Growing Up.
• What are the five sources of fear that Firestone says young people may feel when they think about becoming adults? Which of these fears do you see in the characters in Russell’s book? Which of the main characters, so far, seems the most interested in growing up and becoming independent? How does the motif of twins in “The Star-Gazer’s Log of Summer-Time Crime” and “Z. Z.’s Sleep-Away Camp for Disordered Dreamers” relate to the idea of growing up and becoming independent?

“from Children’s Reminiscences of the Westward Migration”

Reading Check

1. What sort of creature is Jacob’s father?

2. How many families are in the group traveling West?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does Jacob usually walk with the lumberwomen instead of riding in his family’s wagon?

2. Why does Jacob’s mother wake him one night when he is sleeping under the wagon?

“Lady Yeti and the Palace of Artificial Snows”

Reading Check

1. What is the name of the adults-only event that this story centers on?

2. What do Reg and Badger see in the car that causes Badger to smash the car’s window?

Short Answer

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

1. What makes Badger assume that Reg will know what happens at the adults-only event that happens at the Palace of Artificial Snows?

2. What is unusual about the apes at the Palace of Artificial Snows?

Paired Resource

“My Papa’s Waltz”

• This brief and accessible poem by Theodore Roethke describes a loving father-son relationship.
• This resource relates to the theme of Growing Up.
• What is the speaker’s perspective on his father? How does his mother seem to feel about it? What evidence in the poem gives the reader some possible reasons for her feelings? Is this speaker’s perspective most similar to Jacob’s, Reg’s, or Badger’s? Is there a way to make a case that all three feel some kind of admiration for their fathers? Is there any evidence that these boys are simply in different stages of maturation, or are their relationships with their fathers fundamentally different?



“The City of Shells”

Reading Check

1. What is Cornuta?

2. What is Lillith’s nickname?

Short Answer

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

1. What does Laramie claim to have done inside the giant conches?

2. How does Lillith respond when the shell begins to fill with water and Barnaby tells her that they need to escape?

“Out To Sea”

Reading Check

1. What reason does Augie give for having requested to be assigned to Sawtooth?

2. What does Sawtooth yell at Miss Markopoulis for feeding?

Short Answer

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

1. What changes Sawtooth’s attitude about being assigned a community service companion?

2. Why does Sawtooth stop himself from taking a pain pill at the end of the story?

Paired Resource

“State Change”

• A fabulist short story by Ken Liu that describes an isolated woman who must find a way to preserve herself in a world where souls manifest as physical objects
• This resource relates to the theme of Trauma.
• What causes Rina to be so isolated? How does her isolation affect her? How much control does Rina have over her loneliness? What is similar about Sawtooth’s, Lillith’s, and Barnaby’s loneliness? Do the stories in this collection convey similar messages about loneliness to those in Liu’s short story, or is Russell making different claims about the sources and impact of loneliness?

“Accident Brief, Occurrence # 00/422”

Reading Check

1. Who are the residents of Waitiki Valley descended from?

2. What is the choir director’s name?

Short Answer

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

1. What is “the Avalanche”?

2. What incident precipitated Rangi’s long silence?

“St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves”

Reading Check

1. Which of the sisters has the most trouble adjusting to the expectations at St. Lucy’s?

2. What is the name of the dance that Claudette practices in secret in preparation for the dance with the boys’ school?

Short Answer

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

1. What motivates Claudette’s family to allow the nuns to educate their daughters?

2. How do the sisters react when their youngest sister is expelled from St. Lucy’s?

Recommended Next Reads

Swamplandia! by Karen Russell

• A Pulitzer-Prize finalist novel based in the world of Ava, from “Ava Wrestles an Alligator,” which tells the story of the Bigtree family, their theme park, and the aftermath of the death of Ava’s mother
• Shares themes of Growing Up, Broken Families, and Trauma
• Shares topics of fabulism, family relationships, cultural extinction, isolation, death, and sexual awakening
• Swamplandia! on SuperSummary

Vampires in the Lemon Grove by Karen Russell

• Karen Russell’s second short story collection featuring vampires, ghosts, and various creatures embodying intangible aspects of characters’ lives
• Shares themes of Growing Up, Broken Families, and Trauma
• Shares topics of fabulism, relationships, isolation, hybridity, death, and sexual awakening
• Vampires in the Lemon Grove on SuperSummary

Pastoralia by George Saunders

• A collection of O. Henry Prize-winning short stories
• Shares themes of Growing Up, Broken Families, and Trauma
• Shares topics of fabulism, relationships, isolation, marginalization, alienation, and death
• Pastoralia on SuperSummary