Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. Soap carving, worrying, and making lists (Chapter 1)

2. In Lemon Tree, California, in an airstream trailer called Baby Beluga, amid a grove of avocado trees (Chapter 1)

3. Gram leaves the house with rollers in her hair, and the women miss their 744th episode of Wheel of Fortune. (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. The second surprise visitor is Skyla. She is unwelcome because she dropped the children off with Gram seven years ago, claiming she could not handle two kids by herself. Even though Skyla has not seen her children in all that time, she only gives Naomi a distant hug, which Naomi finds disappointing because it is not clear that she actually missed her. (Chapter 2)

2. When she first came to live with Gram, Naomi showed signs of trauma. For example, she “slipped into being silent,” and her hands always trembled. Gram suggested that Naomi needed to do something with her hands to calm her nerves and her mind, and Benardo, who did woodworking as a hobby, introduced carving to Naomi. Because knives were dangerous, Naomi started soap carving with a bent paper clip and worked her way up to a paring knife.