The Sentence

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. Who arrests Tookie?

2. Who supplies Tookie with books in prison?

3. What does Kateri give to Tookie?

4. What is the nickname Tookie gives to the man who never likes her recommendations?

Short Answer

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

1. Why was Tookie annoyed by Flora when she was alive?

2. Why does Tookie think she is more susceptible to seeing ghosts than other people?

3. How do Asema and Tookie react when the white woman tells them about her great-aunt who found Indigenous American skeletal remains?

4. What does Tookie think killed Flora?

Paired Resource

Birchbark Books

• This is the website for the actual Birchbark Books in Minneapolis.
• This resource connects to the theme of The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.
• What might be difficult about writing a real place as fictional? How does the realism of Birchbark Books lend itself to the novel? What challenges might present themselves if you include yourself as a character in your own fiction?

CHAPTERS 4-8

Reading Check

1. What is Hetta’s baby’s name?

2. What holiday do the Birchbark Books employees celebrate at Louise’s house?

3. What does Tookie call the self-published books left in the store by their authors?

4. Who keeps Tookie company during her shifts at the bookstore?

Short Answer

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

1. Why doesn’t Tookie know her real name?

2. Why does Tookie think Laurent is Jarvis’s father?

3. How is Birchbark Books able to stay open during the pandemic?

4. Why is it unnerving that Flora plays “Ain’t No Grave” while Tookie is working?

Paired Resource

“Louise Erdrich on The Sentence”

• This brief article from Poets & Writers includes a PBS NewsHour interview with Louise Erdrich.
• This resource connects to the theme of The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.
• How do you see Erdrich’s thoughts on bookstores connecting to the importance of bookstores in this novel?

“Ain’t No Grave”

• This song by Johnny Cash is the one that Flora’s ghost plays in the bookstore.
• The song’s lyrics and music connect to the theme of The Unpredictability of Life.
• Listen to the lyrics of this song. Why might Flora have chosen this song to play in the bookstore?

CHAPTERS 9-13

Reading Check

1. With whom does Hetta attend protests?

2. What is Migizi?

3. To whom does Tookie deliver books?

4. What subject becomes popular in the bookstore in the wake of the murder of George Floyd?

Short Answer

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

1. How does spring’s arrival affect the bookstore?

2. Why does Hetta worry about Laurent as a parent?

3. Why is Tookie particularly concerned about police brutality against Indigenous Americans?

4. How does Asema think that Flora died?

Paired Resource

“Tawkwaymenahnah”

• This poem by Denise Lajimodiere, an Ojibwe poet, is about her grandmother’s traditions and efforts to keep them alive.
• This resource connects to the theme of The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.
• How does Lajimodiere’s tradition compare with the way Hetta, Tookie, Pollux, and other characters discuss the importance of keeping Indigenous traditions alive?

CHAPTERS 14-18

Reading Check

1. What type of creature does Laurent claim to be?

2. Who does Laurent think Hetta is in love with?

3. About what does Tookie have a revelation when Tookie gets Flora’s ghost to leave?

4. What does Tookie do on November 3, 2020?

Short Answer

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

1. Who was Flora’s ancestor?

2. How is Tookie connected to Flora?

3. What is important about the books Flora’s ghost drops on the floor?

4. What does the last chapter urge readers to do when they find Tookie’s list of favorite books?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich

• This historical novel discusses Indigenous American efforts to survive when the United States government works to withdraw support for Indigenous peoples.
• A shared theme is The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.
• Shared topics include generational trauma and history, violence against Indigenous Americans, and Indigenous American survival.
• The Night Watchman on SuperSummary

There There by Tommy Orange

• This novel features several characters who are drawn to a powwow for different reasons and discusses ways in which their lives overlap.
• Shared themes include The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity and The Unpredictability of Life.
• A shared topic is Indigenous American traditions.
• There There on SuperSummary