Big Mouth & Ugly Girl

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. He is accused of threatening to blow up the school. (Chapter 3)

2. She had to give up swimming and diving because of her physique. (Chapter 2)

3. Ursula says Ms. Schultz is an Ugly Girl too. (Chapter 2)

4. She heard the conversation in which Matt made the threat. (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. She puts on a tough-girl persona as a warrior woman. Ursula doesn’t have many friends and combats her insecurities by pretending things don’t bother her and by becoming the kind of person she admires. (Various chapters)

2. He behaves the way people think he should or the way he has seen people behave in theatrical dramas. (Chapter 5)

Chapters 6-9

Reading Check

1. She feels as though she let her team and coach down. (Chapter 6)

2. She tells Matt she heard what he said and is willing to tell the police Matt was joking. (Chapter 7)

3. Matt’s friends don’t tell the police he was joking, and his friends’ parents tell them not to hang out with Matt. (Various chapters)

4. He threatens a lawsuit against the school. (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. Matt and Ursula both have issues at home resulting from absent fathers. They are both older siblings. Each admires the other for their contrasting qualities. (Various chapters)

2. Both try to mask who they really are in front of their peers. (Various chapters)

Chapters 10-15

Reading Check

1. She is shy. (Chapter 10)

2. He tells him he plans to resign as vice president of the junior class. (Chapter 13)

3. The column is inappropriate. It is a comedic description of lethal injection. (Chapter 14)

4. He confesses he has a crush on her and wishes she would talk to him. (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. He probably assumes the only reason Ursula spoke up in support of Matt is because she is friends with him. (Chapter 12)

2. He feels as though people see elements of his true hurt that are invisible to him, causing them to feel uncomfortable around him. (Chapter 14)

Chapters 16-24

Reading Check

1. She was embarrassed about her weight. (Chapter 16)

2. The Brewer twins (Chapter 18)

3. That the two are dating (Various chapters)

4. She discovers him at the edge of a ravine and convinces him to come with her. (Chapter 24)

Short Answer

1. Ursula drops her tough-girl persona to help Matt. In that moment, she acts as her true self without the hard edges she has cultivated to protect herself. (Various chapters)

2. Ursula defines femininity on her own terms by rejecting the ideal of extreme thinness among ballet dancers and embracing the punk aesthetic. She also begins to develop her identity in relation to female artists. (Various chapters)

Chapters 25-33

Reading Check

1. Because Ursula says she doesn’t listen to gossip (Chapter 29)

2. She likes that they are similar heights and his relationship with Pumpkin. (Chapter 30)

3. A friend tells Ursula that Ms. Schultz misses her. (Chapter 31)

4. She thinks Matt is in a state of shock and that is why he is dating Ursula. (Chapter 32)

Short Answer

1. Her mother gives Ursula her opinion on people who file lawsuits, and Ursula takes that information to Matt. Whether Ursula agrees with her mother’s opinions on the lawsuit or not, her mother does have some influence over Ursula’s perception of the world. (Chapter 33)

2. Matt indicates that there is a social divide between him and Ursula because his family is not rich like hers. Though the families are similar in the way they interact and in the absence of their fathers, the socio-economic differences between them have not been explored up to this point in the novel. (Chapter 33)

Chapters 34-38

Reading Check

1. Because she told him that people consider his family’s lawsuit greedy (Various chapters)

2. He thinks his father has lost his job. (Chapter 36)

3. She is distressed over the loss of her relationship with Matt. (Chapter 37)

4. Matt gets her a gift and apologizes. (Chapter 38)

Short Answer

1. Matt’s father has filed a suit against the school for defaming Matt’s character, but he criticizes Matt in the same way the school did. (Various chapters)

2. Matt’s parents appear to be oblivious to his depression and take him to the psychologist as evidence of his soundness of mind for the lawsuit his father has filed against the school. Students will likely say that Matt should see the psychologist because he considered suicide before becoming friends with Ursula, and the psychologist may be able to help Matt work through his social isolation, familial troubles, and depression. (Various chapters)

Chapters 39-43

Reading Check

1. He is abducted. (Chapter 40)

2. Through art (Chapter 41)

3. She asks him where Pumpkin is and threatens to get her father involved. Trevor says he will ask around. (Chapter 42)

4. He is released and finds his way home. (Chapter 43)

Short Answer

1. She is confident enough to tackle an issue head-on rather than waiting for someone to solve it for her. Unlike Matt’s mother, who is self-medicating, Ursula confronts Trevor and demands Pumpkin’s release. (Chapter 42)

2. Matt and his family have received threatening phone calls and letters, gotten into physical altercations, and had their pet abducted. (Various chapters)

Chapters 44-49

Reading Check

1. Courtney offers to give Ursula her position as team captain back, but Ursula refuses because Courtney is well liked by the team. (Chapter 44)

2. Reverend Brewer (Chapter 45)

3. He eats with the family twice a week now. (Chapter 47)

4. The New York Times is going to publish “Mass Media Hysteria.” (Chapter 49)

Short Answer

1. She realizes that it is a uniform or a skin, and she no longer feels the need to wear it all the time. (Chapter 44)

2. The nature preserve is a place for Matt and Ursula to be alone together and talk. It marks the place, other than email, where Matt and Ursula built their relationship. (Various chapters)