69 pages • 2 hours read
Jewell Parker RhodesA 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.
These prompts can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before or after reading the novel.
Personal Response Prompt
Lanesha studies the vocabulary word fortitude (“strength to endure”) before the storm. Discuss a time that you or someone you know utilized the quality of fortitude in the face of fear, danger, or conflict. How did you or they feel when the ordeal ended? What associated emotions did you or they experience?
Teaching Suggestion: Assure students that we all use fortitude with difficult tasks; they do not have to draw on disasters or tragedies like Lanesha’s. For some, passing a test takes fortitude; for others, giving a speech. Connect these examples of courage and strength to the novel’s theme of Fortitude in the Face of Fear. Students can share responses if they are comfortable.
Post-Reading Analysis
Lanesha performs well in school, but during and after the hurricane, she learns several lessons in other ways. What lessons does she learn, and from whom? How do these newly learned pieces of wisdom help her to survive? Based on Lanesha’s actions, how are wisdom, study, and experience connected?
Teaching Suggestion: Students should draw on Lanesha’s interactions with Mama Ya-Ya, TaShon, and the ghost of Lanesha’s mother as the origins of newly learned lessons during and after the storm. What Lanesha learns from them motivates her actions. Answers might include trusting one’s own intuition or special sight (Mama Ya-Ya), expressing emotion and relying on the help of others (TaShon), and not giving up (Lanesha’s mother’s ghost). Lanesha needs each of these lessons along with her academic skills to survive. For example, she heeds Mama Ya-Ya’s foresight in moving their supplies to the attic; later, she uses her knowledge of math and science to judge the angles and force needed to knock the boat loose while trapped on the roof. If students share and discuss responses, consider Lanesha’s tone and emotions at the novel’s conclusion; then connect to the theme of Gratitude for Support and Help from Loved Ones.
By Jewell Parker Rhodes