The Body in the Woods: A Point Last Seen Mystery

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

Chapters 1-8

Reading Check

1. Before Alexis realizes that the phone call she gets at school is about a search and rescue operation, what is she afraid the call is about?

2. How does Ruby think that the girl in the woods died?

3. Who is the trauma intervention volunteer who counsels Alexis after she, Ruby, and Nick find the girl’s body?

Short Answer

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

1. Why do Alexis, Nick, and Ruby get grouped together for the search?

2. What are the two main reasons that Nick wants to join the army?

3. What is Ruby’s reasoning for telling Nick that he does not need the rock to protect them after they find the girl’s body?

Paired Resource

“ Teens Learn Leadership, Survival Through Search, Rescue Program”

• This article, written by Tony Hernandez in The Oregonian, shares the story of two teenagers who volunteer with the Multnomah County sheriff's office search and rescue.
• This resource relates to the themes of Survival and Identity and Belonging.
• Before you read this article, did you think that teenagers could be a part of search and rescue teams? How do Charlotte and Colin’s reasons for being involved with this program compare to Alexis, Nick, and Ruby’s? What kind of training have Charlotte and Colin received? Do you imagine that the teens in The Body in the Woods have had similar training? Having this kind of training might increase their confidence and their ability to take care of themselves in dangerous situations—but it also might also make them overconfident. How are Ruby, Nick, and Alexis impacted by their training so far? How does this article relate to the novel’s themes of Survival and Identity and Belonging?

Chapters 9-19

Reading Check

1. Who narrates Chapter 9?

2. Who gives Alexis a ride home in Chapter 11?

3. What did another unhoused woman tell Tiffany she should always sleep near?

Short Answer

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

1. Based on Ruby’s Chapter 10 conversation with Detective Harriman, what valuable skills does Ruby bring to investigating a mystery?

2. Why do Ruby’s parents tell her she will have to drop out of the search and rescue program?

3. What does Nick notice about Alexis’s gear during the search in Chapter 15?

Paired Resource

“Violence Against People Who Are Homeless: The Hidden Epidemic”

• This article, written by Dr. Margot Kushel for University of California San Francisco’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, offers a statistical look at the epidemic of violence against the unhoused. (Note that this article mentions many types of violent crime in passing.)
• Why do you think the unhoused are so often targeted by violent criminals? How does society’s attitude toward the unhoused make it more likely that they will get away with their crimes? Of the three main characters of The Body in the Woods, who seems most aware of the kinds of issues Kushel is writing about? How do you think that the obstacles Alexis, Nick, and Ruby face in their own lives impact their ability to notice the struggles of others? How does this relate to the novel’s themes of Survival and Identity and Belonging?

Chapters 20-28

Reading Check

1. Why does the killer target Ruby?

2. After looking at the photo lineup at the police station, what does Ruby offer to try to identify?

3. What word does the man Alexis talks to at the library use to describe kids like Miranda?

Short Answer

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

1. In Chapter 21, what do most of the encounters with other people that Nick has at home and at school have in common?

2. When Alexis is searching for her mother on Saturday, what fears about her future is she struggling with?

3. Why is the search for George so emotionally rewarding for Nick?

Paired Resource

“Why Talking About Our Problems Makes Us Feel Better”

• This Psychology Today article by Dr. Diane E. Dreher reviews research into the benefits of sharing our problems with others.
• This resource relates to the themes of Friendship and Communication Versus Silence.
• What does research show about the benefits of sharing our problems with others? Which characters in The Body in the Woods could benefit from being more open with others about the struggles they are having? What prevents them from speaking up? What do you predict will happen as Alexis, Nick, and Ruby get to know one another better? How does this relate to the novel’s themes of Friendship and Communication Versus Silence?

Chapters 29-37

Reading Check

1. Who is the first person that Alexis opens up to about her mother’s illness?

2. What do Ruby and Caleb Becker talk about in the park?

3. When she looks at her mother’s owls, what does Ruby suddenly realize the killer is trying to create?

Short Answer

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

1. On Sunday when Ruby, Nick, and Alexis are talking in the car, what conclusion do they come to about the arrest the police have made and what they should do next?

2. What happens when Ruby’s parents discover that she is still working with the search and rescue team?

3. When he knocks on his door, what lie does Nick tell the runner with the dogs, and how does the man react?

Paired Resource

“A Time to Talk”

• This brief and accessible Robert Frost poem celebrates the attentiveness of true friendship.
• This resource relates to the themes of Friendship and Communication Versus Silence.
• Why does the speaker of this poem go over to talk instead of just talking from where he is standing? What difference would this make in the conversation? What reward does he imply he gets from this? In a figurative sense, what are the other ways we need to “go up to the stone wall” for our friends? How does Bran do this for Alexis? Do you see other friendships in the text developing in this way?

Chapters 38-46

Reading Check

1. In what kind of journal does the killer write about his victims?

2. What bird does Becker promise Ruby a sighting of to lure her away?

3. What does Becker plan to strangle Ruby with?

Short Answer

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

1. When Ruby, Nick, and Alexis are at the school watching the swifts, why does Detective Harriman call Ruby?

2. What source of strength and inspiration does Nick draw on when he goes after Becker and rescues Ruby?

3. What clue finally makes Ruby realize the truth about Caleb Becker?

Chapters 47-54

Reading Check

1. What does Becker do when Ruby finally stops fighting him?

2. What is the first weapon that Nick tries to use to stop Becker?

3. What does Alexis’s mother do with the newspaper articles about Alexis and her friends?

Short Answer

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

1. What makes Becker confident that he can catch Ruby even though she is in better shape than he is?

2. Who finally stops Becker’s attack? How do they stop the attack?

3. When they have dinner together in Chapter 53, what do Alexis and Nick tell Ruby about their differences?

Recommended Next Reads 

Blood Will Tell: A Point Last Seen Mystery by April Henry

• In this sequel to The Body in the Woods, Alexis and Ruby fight to clear Nick’s name when he becomes a suspect in the murder of a woman found in a Portland Park.
• Shared themes include Friendship, Identity and Belonging, Survival, and Communication Versus Silence.
• Shared topics include adventure, mystery, mortality and death, trust and doubt, teamwork, and teen detectives.

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson

• In Johnson’s young adult mystery/thriller, teen detective Stevie Bell brings her best friends to assist her as she solves a decades-old murder at Camp Wonder Falls.
• Shared themes include Friendship and Survival.
• Shared topics include adventure, mystery, danger and isolation, mortality and death, trust and doubt, teamwork, and teen detectives.