Before the Ever After

Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.

Part 1, Pages 1-22

Reading Check

1. Who is known as #44?

2. In what year does the story take place?

3. Where is ZJ’s dad supposed to be the night he comes home?

4. What do ZJ and his friends call themselves?

5. What does ZJ’s father frequently call him?

6. What does ZJ like to do in his spare time?

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following positive memories does ZJ recall as he processes his grief of his dad’s cognitive decline?

A) swimming in his pool

B) helping his mom to cook in the kitchen

C) working out with his friends

D) spending time in the car with his parents

2. Which of ZJ’s friends is described as fearless and an expert bike rider?

A) Daniel

B) Ollie

C) Darry

D) Everett

3. Who tells ZJ that if he loves a thing, he has to love it as much as possible?

A) Ollie

B) his father

C) his mother

D) Daniel

4. How does ZJ make his father smile as they spend the night at home alone?

A) He shares his slice of pizza.

B) He tells how he gave his friends his lunch.

C) He says he wants to play football too.

D) He sings one of his songs.

5. Why does Ollie answer “Maybe I’m all those things” when kids ask him what his ethnicity and race are?

A) He was adopted and doesn’t know his biological parents.

B) He wants to show off his heritage to his classmates.

C) He likes the attention from the other kids.

D) He thinks it is a dumb question.

6. How do Zachariah, Sr. and ZJ share their respect and admiration for each other?

A) They swap stories about football games

B) They watch a favorite movie together.

C) They riff off of each other’s rap verses.

D) They play basketball together in their free time.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does ZJ hint at his father’s cognitive issues?

2. Why does ZJ say that his dad is not his hero to a news reporter?

3. How do ZJ’s friends help him feel like a regular kid instead of a famous football player’s son?

4. How does ZJ describe doing what he loves with his friends?

5. Why does ZJ say that he and his parents lived happily “before the ever after”?

Part 1, Pages 23-87

Reading Check

1. What does Zachariah, Sr. do multiple times without realizing he’s doing it?

2. What kinds of books does ZJ say he’s been reading?

3. What holiday is being celebrated when ZJ invites his friends over?

4. According to ZJ’s mother, what helps her to think?

5. Where does ZJ sleep after his father is escorted home?

Multiple Choice

1. What category does ZJ say his dad most likely holds a world record in?

A) running long cross-country distances

B) the most tackles in the NFL

C) time spent on a football field

D) the most concussions even with a helmet on

2. What is something that Zachariah, Sr. does not struggle to remember?

A) the names of his former teammates

B) the name of his son

C) the names of his son’s friends

D) the name of his former team mascot

3. What competition with ZJ does his father remember and swears he will win this year?

A) Deep Water Day

B) Tackle Day

C) Race Day

D) Basketball Day

4. Why does Daniel show up at ZJ’s house to talk about the first time they met?

A) He wants to check out the new basketball court.

B) He needs ZJ to check his homework.

C) He forgot his jacket in ZJ’s room.

D) He feels bad for avoiding ZJ.

5. What is not one of the names Zachariah, Sr. and ZJ give the trees?

A) Peaches

B) Crabby

C) Maple 

D) Sweet Pine

6. Why does ZJ think his dad sounds lost and alone?

A) His dad can’t find his way back from running.

B) His dad asks where his memories have gone.

C) His dad doesn’t remember what TV shows he likes.

D) His dad calls for his mother and panics when she doesn’t come.

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How do Zachariah, Sr.’s symptoms affect his body?

2. Why do ZJ’s friends begin to distance themselves from ZJ and his home?

3. Why does ZJ tell his grandma that he feels that they are in deep water?

4. How does ZJ react when he meets his mother in the kitchen in the middle of the night?

5. Why does ZJ say he knows what people mean when they say, “Be careful what you wish for”?

Part 2, Pages 91-131

Reading Check

1. What does ZJ do after looking through his father’s closet?

2. What kinds of dreams does ZJ say his dad was always telling him about?

3. On what day does ZJ’s dad tell him to be careful?

4. What happened when Zachariah, Sr. went to film a commercial?

5. What do ZJ’s parents talk about on one of his dad’s good days?

6. What does ZJ’s mom call him after his father asks if he is “one of those sensitive musicians”?

Multiple Choice

1. Why does Zachariah, Sr. visit so many doctors and take so many pills?

A) He’s begun to enjoy the attention from the doctors.

B) He doesn’t like each doctor he visits.

C) His insurance doesn’t cover long-term treatment.

D) His doctors don’t fully understand his condition.

2. Who visits ZJ in their pajamas on a Saturday?

A) Darry, Daniel, and Ollie

B) Grandma and Nana B

C) His mother and Aunt Nan

D) Darry, Everett, and Ollie

3. What is something a football player can do so that won’t have a holding penalty called on them?

A) tackle a player who doesn’t have the ball

B) snatch and slam a player to the ground

C) hold a player to the ground on the football field

D) block a player on the line of scrimmage

4. What does ZJ discover that reminds him of rapping and making music with his dad?

A) an old microphone stand in the basement

B) old notebooks filled with his and his dad’s songs

C) an old jukebox at his favorite restaurant

D) a karaoke field trip at school

5. Who says they need the trail and why?

A) Ollie, because he found out information about his family

B) his mother because she needs to get away from taking care of his father

C) Daniel, because he says he wants to forget homework and go outside

D) Darry, because his parents are divorcing and he needs to tell someone

6. What song did ZJ’s father first ask his mother to dance to when they met?

A) “Can’t Help Falling in Love” by Elvis Presley

B) “I Wanna Dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston

C) “The Way You Make Me Feel” by Michael Jackson

D) “Why Do Fools Fall in Love” by Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does ZJ cry?

2. How does Zachariah, Sr. inspire ZJ to write a rap about grease-stained pockets?

3. Why do ZJ and his friends vow that “nothing’s ever coming between our crew”?

4. How do the photographs in the guest room help ZJ process his grief?

5. How are the photographs used to give ZJ hope?

Part 2, Pages 132-163

Reading Check

1. Who has a birthday, and how old are they turning?

2. Who wasn’t invited to the birthday party?

3. What kind of football does ZJ play with his friends?

4. What does ZJ give Everett?

5. What show did Zachariah, Sr. used to watch?

6. Where is Zachariah, Sr. at the end of the novel?

Multiple Choice

1. What does ZJ wonder at the end of the birthday party?

A) who is going to finish all of the cake

B) why his mother invited so many people

C) whether older football players had health issues like his dad

D) whether his grandmothers will come to the party

2. Who does ZJ say was invited to the birthday party?

A) his father’s biggest fans

B) his mother’s side of the family

C) the doctors who treat his father

D) the people who asked how they were doing

3. Why does ZJ walk off the football field swearing it is forever?

A) He gets tackled and doesn’t want the same issues as his dad.

B) He has never enjoyed football and is finally admitting it.

C) His mother has asked him to stop playing.

D) He’s more interested in basketball than football.

4. What does ZJ think about when Everett says that he plans to play pro football?

A) the money that Everett will earn if he makes it

B) his father, a former pro player, sitting at home tired from his medication

C) how Everett is not really his friend and never really has been

D) his jealously for Everett’s dedication to his dream

5. What does Zachariah, Sr. say about the Pigskin Dreams while watching TV?

A) that they were always there

B) that he would forget about them at times

C) that he thought about changing his mind

D) that they were fading and no longer what he wanted

6. Who watches ZJ when Zachariah, Sr. is taken to the hospital?

A) Nana B

B)  Aunt Nan

C) Waterboy

D) Sightman

Short-Answer Response

Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does low-volume music affect Zachariah, Sr.?

2. Why does ZJ say he’s going to write new songs for his dad?

3. How does ZJ react to his father’s hospitalization?

4. How do ZJ’s songs play a role at the end of the novel?