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

PROLOGUE

Reading Check

1. Why does Rino phone Elena (the narrator)?

2. What special nickname does only Elena call Rino’s mother?

3. What does Rino find when he looks inside his mother’s closet?

4. How does Elena feel about Rino’s mother’s attempts to disappear?

Short Answer

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

1. How is Rino characterized in the prologue?

2. What does Rino’s mother mean when she says that she wants to disappear without a trace, according to Elena?

3. Based on the details in the prologue, how is the relationship between Elena and Rino’s mother characterized?

4. Why does Elena write the text of the novel?

PART 1, CHAPTERS 1-18

Reading Check

1. Who taught six-year-old Lila how to read?

2. What does Elena say to Lila after throwing Nu, Lila’s doll, into Don Achille’s cellar?

3. What does Lila purchase with the money given to her and Elena by Don Achille?

4. What shocking event occurs at the end of Part 1?

Short Answer

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

1. How does the confrontation with Don Achille transform Elena and Lila’s friendship?

2.