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

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. What is the story’s setting?

2. What does Kim do in the empty lot?

3. How long has Ana lived in the neighborhood?

4. What was Ana’s job before she retired?

5. How did Wendell’s wife and son die?

Short Answer

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

1. Why are the bean plants so important to Kim?

2. Why is Ana so suspicious of Kim?

3. What is the significance of the biblical quote “And a little child shall lead them” to Wendell?

Paired Resource

“The Parable of the Sower” and “The Parable of the Mustard Seed”

• Two King James Version biblical parables
• Both connect to the theme of Nurturing as an Act of Faith and Healing.
• In what ways does each of Fleischman’s characters engage in an act of faith and healing? How impressive are the initial results? If Fleischman is borrowing from both the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Mustard seed, what predictions can be made regarding what may happen with the garden and the neighbors on Gibb Street?

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. Who is Tío Juan?

2. What does goldenrod remind Leona of?

3. What word jumps to Sam’s mind when he sees the vacant lot being cleared for gardening?

4. Which two biblical stories does Sam allude to when describing the garden?

Short Answer

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

1. What is Garcia’s Equation, and what does it mean to Gonzalo?

2. How does the garden benefit Gonzalo?

3. Why does Leona get involved with the garden?

4. How does Leona finally make herself visible to the city officials, and what is the result?

5. What do Sam’s two biblical allusions suggest about the garden’s potential?

Paired Resource

“The Tower of Babel” and “The Garden of Eden”

• Two King James Version biblical stories
• Both connect to the theme of Overcoming Separation With a Shared Purpose.
• Compare Sam’s descriptions of the garden and its problems to both biblical texts. What connections and similarities are present? How does noticing the connections help deepen the impact of the story’s conflict, theme, or message?

Chapters 7-10

Reading Check

1. What does Virgil find while digging out space for his father’s garden?

2. What is Virgil’s first interpretation of why the lettuce is dying?

3. What event led to Sae Young’s fear of people?

4. What are Curtis’s nicknames, before the garden and after?

5. Whom does Curtis enlist to help protect his tomatoes?

6. Which group of people did Nora claim prescribed walking in a garden as a cure for mental distress?

Short Answer

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

1. How does the garden both test and deepen Virgil’s faith?

2. How does the garden help Sae Young overcome an internal or external conflict?

3. In what ways does the garden enable Curtis to show Lateesha he has grown and changed?

4. How does the garden help Nora overcome an internal or external conflict?

Paired Resource

“The Myth of Hades and Persephone” by Iseult Gillespie

• This animated Ted-Ed video by Iseult Gillespie retells the story of Hades and Demeter, the Greek goddess of agriculture.
• This connects to the themes of Overcoming Separation With a Shared Purpose and Nurturing as an Act of Faith and Healing.
• In what ways does the myth of Hades and Demeter explore concepts of faith, nurturing, healing, and separation? In what ways does Virgil’s story explore concepts of faith, nurturing, healing, and separation? What lessons or messages are present in both stories? Where do the stories differ? Which story better shares the lesson to modern readers, and why?

Chapters 11-13

Reading Check

1. Why does Penny make Maricela join the garden?

2. To what animal does Amir compare Americans?

3. What does Florence call her ancestors?

4. How does the story end?

Short Answer

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

1. What advice does Leona give Maricela, and what does it do for Maricela?

2. What does Amir think is the greatest benefit of the garden?

3. In what ways is the “harvest festival” symbolic?

4. What connection does Florence see between the first gardeners on Gibb Street and her own ancestors?

Recommended Next Reads 

There There by Tommy Orange

• This novel by Pulitzer Prize finalist Tommy Orange explores events taking place long before and also leading up to an Oakland Powwow and a planned robbery of the event.  Through multiple points of view and changing perspectives, Orange relates the experiences of 12 Indigenous American characters, drawing them together at the powwow that each attends with different motivations and that violently alters each of their lives.
• While this multi-perspective novel suitable for more mature readers explores Overcoming Separation With a Shared Purpose, it also challenges the idea that accepting diverse perspectives and coming together are sufficient to heal the systemic racism and colonialism creating separation and isolation in American communities.
• Shared topics include a working-class urban setting; conflicts related to joblessness, homelessness, and gun violence; a story with multiple characters drawn together by a single setting and larger purpose; exploration of the interplay between culture, identity, family, and community; and examination of the individual and community-wide effects of isolation, separation, and systemic violence in American society.  
• There There on SuperSummary

Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly

• In this Newberry Award-winning novel, the lives of four kids often overlooked and pushed to the fringes intersect when a bully plays a prank that traps a fellow student. The children band together to find their missing classmate and, in the process, find connection, understanding, and friendship.
• This multi-perspective middle-grade novel explores themes related to Overcoming Separation With a Shared Purpose and Growth as a Result of Acknowledging and Accepting Diverse Perspectives.
• Other shared topics include the impacts of stereotyping; the challenges of living with physical, mental, and cultural differences; feelings of isolation; and the barriers that stand in the way of meaningful connection and friendship.
• Hello, Universe on SuperSummary