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

CHAPTERS 1-4

Reading Check

1. How does Esperanza’s father teach her to listen to the Earth?

2. What happens the night before Esperanza’s 13th birthday?

3. What are Esperanza’s uncle’s jobs?

4. Who are Hortensia, Alfonso, and Luis to Esperanza and her family?

5. What special ritual does not happen on the morning of Esperanza’s 13th birthday?

6. What plan do the adults share with Esperanza and Miguel?

Short Answer

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

1. Describe Esperanza’s uncles, Tío Luis and Tío Marco.

2. How do Esperanza, her family, and the ranch become indebted to Tío Luis, her father’s stepbrother?

3. Why does Tío Luis insist on Ramona (Esperanza’s mother) marrying him? How does he try to force Ramona to cooperate with his proposal?

4. How does Abuelita comfort Esperanza about the changes she is facing?

Paired Resource

“Historical Note on the Mexican Revolution”

• This student-friendly resource provides a brief history of the Mexican Revolution, which provides some important historical context for Esperanza’s story. This page is written by Alda P. Dobbs, author of Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna, a work of historical fiction set in 1913 during the Mexican Revolution, two decades earlier than the events of Esperanza’s story.