Turtles All the Way Down

75 pages • 2 hours read

Turtles All the Way Down

Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2017

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

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

CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. What nickname does Daisy use for Aza?

2. Where does Aza’s mom work?

3. What is the name of Aza’s car?

4. Who stands to inherit Davis’s father’s money?

Short Answer

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

1. How do Aza’s OCD and anxiety affect her?

2. Why do Aza and Daisy canoe on the river, and what memories does it trigger?

3. How does Davis feel about his father?

Paired Resource

“How to Talk to My Parents or Guardian”

This post from the National Alliance on Mental Illness gives helpful advice for how a young person might discuss their mental wellness with an adult and offers suggestions if the conversation does not lead to help.
This resource connects to the theme of Mental Illness.
Does Aza share her feelings with her mother? How does Aza feel about her mother’s support?

“Why High-Class People Get Away With Incompetence”

This New York Times article examines the inflated confidence that drives some wealthy people.
Theme connection includes Socioeconomic Status.
How does Davis’s elite upbringing cause conflict in his life, and how does it complicate his family relationships?

CHAPTERS 6-10

Reading Check

1. How did Aza’s father die?

2. What restaurant do Aza and Daisy like to go to together?

3. How does Dr. Singh encourage Aza to view herself?

4. What is the content of the final note on Pickett’s phone that Aza discovers?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Daisy get the police report, and how does this action affect Aza?

2. Why doesn’t Aza take her medication regularly?

3. Why does Davis give Aza and Daisy $100,000?

CHAPTERS 11-15

Reading Check

1. What does Daisy buy with the money from Davis?

2. How does Aza feel most comfortable communicating with Davis?

3. How does Davis begin each entry in his new blog?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Daisy try to help Aza when she gets stuck in a “thought spiral”? (Chapter 11)

2. Why does Davis cry at Aza’s home?

3. What is Davis’s response to Aza sharing some of her anxiety?

4. How does kissing Davis affect Aza?

Paired Resource

“Friendship and Mental Health”

The Mental Health Foundation in the UK offers ideas about how to speak to friends about mental health and ways to support people struggling.
Theme connections include Mental Illness and Reality and Identity.
Based on the information from the article, would you say that Daisy is a supportive friend?

“When Things Feel Unreal, Is That a Delusion or an Insight?”

Scientific American presents reflections on derealization, focusing on a filmmaker’s experience.
Theme connections include Reality and Identity.
When does Aza experience depersonalization, and how does it affect her?

CHAPTERS 16-20

Reading Check

1. How does Davis feel about Ayala?

2. What has Aza started drinking to appease her OCD tendencies?

3. Why does Aza vehemently protest staying in the hospital?

Short Answer

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

1. Who is Ayala, and how does Aza feel when she learns about her?

2. How does Aza end up in the hospital?

3. What is unusual about the point of view of Chapter 20, and what is the effect?

Paired Resource

“My Own Heart Let Me More Have Pity On”

In this poem, one of the “terrible sonnets” that he wrote from a place of deep depression, Gerard Manley Hopkins rallies for self-compassion, joy, and comfort.
The poem connects to the theme of Mental Illness and Reality and Identity.
How “kind” is Aza to herself? What might her response be to the speaker of the poem?

CHAPTERS 21-24

Reading Check

1. How long does Aza stay in the hospital?

2. What treatment does Dr. Singh tell Aza will help her?

3. Where is Mychal honored?

4. Where are Davis and Noah moving?

Short Answer

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

1. In Chapter 21, Aza and Daisy use different river metaphors to describe Aza. How do their metaphors differ?

2. How do Aza and Daisy find Davis’s father?

3. How does the author change the perspective of the final scene of Chapter 24?

Paired Resource

“The Lower Your Social Class, the ‘Wiser’ You Are, Suggests New Study”

This article from Science covers a study that suggests that people of lower socioeconomic class may score higher on a wisdom scale.
This connects to the theme of how Socioeconomic Status affects the outcome of a person’s life.
Does Daisy seem like a wise character? How does she demonstrate her wisdom or foolishness? Does her socioeconomic status influence her wisdom as this article indicates it should?

Recommended Next Reads

Looking for Alaska by John Green

When Miles begins attending boarding school, he meets new friends and falls in love with Alaska. Tragedy shifts the course of their year, and they all struggle to find themselves and each other.
Shared themes include Mental Illness, Reality and Identity, and Socioeconomic Status.
Shared topics include growing up, school, solving a mystery, grief, dating, and pondering the universe.
Looking for Alaska on SuperSummary

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L. Sánchez

At 16, Julia grieves the loss of her sister while navigating depression, family dynamics, a new relationship, school, and work. When she learns she did not know her sister as well as she thought, she decides she needs to follow the clues, wherever they lead.
Shared themes include Mental Illness, Reality and Identity, and Socioeconomic Status.
Shared topics include mental illness, family, growing up, social class, grief, and unraveling secrets.
I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. “Holmsey” (Chapter 1)

2. At Aza’s high school (Chapter 2)

3. Harold (Chapter 2)

4. His tuatara (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Aza repeatedly opens a wound on her finger as a sort of ritual, then worries about it, cleans it, and bandages it. She also gets distracted when she is with others and spends time researching her obsessions. Aza worries, for example, about getting C. diff, and often checks herself for symptoms. (Chapters 1-5)

2. Aza and Daisy canoe to get clues at Davis’s home about his father’s disappearance. Aza remembers there is a camera on the property that might have a clue. They remember a birthday Aza had on a small island on the river. (Chapter 3)

3. Davis feels his father never really took care of them and is an awful person. He thinks he disappeared because he was a coward and hopes he does not return. (Chapter 4)

CHAPTERS 6-10

Reading Check

1. He had a heart attack. (Chapter 6)

2. Applebee’s (Chapter 6)

3. As brave (Chapter 8)

4. “The jogger’s mouth” (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Daisy tricks one of the reporters who wrote about Davis’s father to email her the police report, pretending to be his colleague. Aza goes into a thought spiral of worry and guilt and becomes afraid the reporter will lose his job and she and Daisy will be caught. (Chapter 6)

2. Through her inner reflection and appointment with her therapist, Aza reveals she does not think the medication helps and does not want the medication to change her true self. (Chapters 7-8)

3. Davis gives Aza and Daisy the amount of the award for information that leads to locating his father. He worries Aza just wants to be around him because of the money and decides if the money is behind them, they can be real with each other. (Chapter 9)

CHAPTERS 11-15

Reading Check

1. A new laptop (Chapter 12)

2. Texting and video chatting (Chapters 13-15)

3. With a quote (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. Daisy listens patiently. She tries to reassure Aza her finger is not infected. She also encourages her to be kind to herself, saying, “Don’t let Aza be cruel to Holmsey, ok?” (Chapter 11)

2. Aza’s mom lectures Davis on being kind to Aza and respecting her, not taking her for granted. Davis cries to some extent because she is wrong about how he views Aza and his money, as he reveals to Aza, and it could be inferred he cries partly because he misses his mom. (Chapter 12)

3. He listens to Aza and immediately agrees to whatever she needs. Davis also tries to reassure her how much he likes her. (Chapter 12)

4. Aza at first likes kissing Davis, but soon, her thoughts swamp her with worries about his microbes in her body, and she feels compelled to research it on her phone. She begins sweating and cannot stop her obsessive thoughts. She eventually is overcome by her obsessions and drinks hand sanitizer to try to kill germs she believes are in her. (Chapter 12-14)

CHAPTERS 16-20

Reading Check

1. Davis likes Ayala. (Chapter 17)

2. Hand sanitizer (Chapter 17-19)

3. Aza is worried she will get sick at the hospital, specifically knowing C. diff infections are possible from hospitals. (Chapter 19)

Short Answer

1. Ayala is a character in Daisy’s fanfiction. She seems to have some characteristics of Aza, like worrying and complaining and not realizing her privilege, and after reading about her, Aza becomes offended. (Chapter 16)

2. Aza and Daisy get into an argument while Aza is driving, and Aza gets distracted and crashes. (Chapter 18)

3. Instead of Aza using the first person, she uses second, “you,” which shows a distancing of her from herself and the complexities with which she views herself. (Chapter 20)

CHAPTERS 21-24

Reading Check

1. Eight days (Chapter 21)

2. Taking her medication regularly and going to therapy (Chapter 21)

3. At an art show (Chapter 22)

4. Colorado (Chapter 24)

Short Answer

1. Aza sees herself as the White River, not able to be navigated. Daisy sees her as the city of Indianapolis, surviving and somewhat thriving despite the river not being helpful enough. (Chapter 21)

2. At the art show, which is in a tunnel, Aza and Daisy walk through the tunnel and smell an awful smell. Later, they hypothesize the tunnel’s name, Pogue’s Run, could be “the jogger’s mouth” from Pickett’s phone, thus connecting that Pickett could be in the tunnel. (Chapter 22)

3. Aza uses multiple pronouns and perspectives to refer to herself. She also shifts through time, speaking of remembering her future. The scene provides a glimpse of the future and additional insight into how Aza views herself, with multiple selves, with hope despite pain. (Chapter 24)