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 1-5

Reading Check

1. Why is Risa being unwound?

2. Why is Lev being unwound?

3. Why and how do the three main characters’ stories converge?

Short Answer

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

1. Character development often hinges on establishing the character’s flaw first. Shusterman goes to great lengths to make Connor’s flaw clear. What is it?

Paired Resource

“Child Welfare and Foster Care Statistics”

• This frequently updated source from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is filled with statistics about the realities faced by young people in foster care. The information raises questions about social and ethical responsibilities toward children left without parents.
• How does this resource connect to the novel’s theme of What Is Morality?

“America’s Pandemic Orphans Are Slipping Through the Cracks”

• This article from The Atlantic discusses the rising number of children left without caregivers because of the recent pandemic.
• How do these realities of overwhelmed systems and slow bureaucratic decisions make their way into Shusterman’s fictional world?

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. How do Risa and Connor test Lev’s sincerity?

2.