Who & What
1. Who is the mysterious girl in the elevator?
Answer: The mysterious girl is Dani.
Page: 125
6. What does the word “clockin’” mean in the novel?
Answer: It means noticing or recognizing something.
Page: 123
11. What does Reynolds compare Dani’s tongue to?
Answer: He compares her tongue to pink candy.
Page: 127
16. What two opposite descriptions of Dani’s eyes does Reynolds give us?
Answer: He describes “sunshine” in her eyes and later describes their “brightness dimming.”
Pages: 127 and 133
21. What major problem affects Dani and Will’s childhood?
Answer: Gun violence affects their childhood.
2. How old were Will and Dani in the photograph?
Answer: They were eight years old.
Page: 127
7. What is a stray bullet?
Answer: A stray bullet is a bullet that accidentally hits someone or something that was not the intended target.
12.What does Reynolds compare the gunshots to?
Answer: He compares the gunshots to firecrackers.
Page: 131
17. What two opposite images are placed together in “bubble gum and blood”?
Answer: Bubble gum represents childhood and sweetness, while blood represents violence and death.
Page: 133
22. What is one detail that shows Dani was an innocent child?
Possible answers:
She was eight years old.
She played on the monkey bars.
She wore a flower dress.
Her tongue looked like pink candy.
Page: 127
3. Where was Dani playing in Will’s childhood memory?
Answer: Dani was playing on the monkey bars.
Page: 127
8.What does “dimming” mean?
Answer: It means becoming darker or losing brightness.
Page: 133
13. What does the “sunshine” in Dani’s eyes show about her?
Answer: It shows that Dani is happy, innocent, and full of life.
Page: 127
18. How do the monkey bars contrast with the gunshots?
Answer: The monkey bars represent childhood and play, while the gunshots represent danger and violence.
Pages: 127–131
23. What is one detail that shows the violence of Dani’s death?
Possible answers:
Her body burned.
Reynolds describes “bubble gum and blood.”
The brightness in her eyes was dimming.
Pages: 131–133
4. What suddenly interrupts Will’s happy memory of Dani?
Answer: Gunshots suddenly interrupt the memory.
Pages: 130–131
9. What is imagery?
Imagery is descriptive language that helps readers picture, hear, or feel what is happening.
14. How do the words “her body burned” make the shooting feel to the reader?
Answer: They make the shooting feel painful, frightening, and violent.
Page: 131
19. How does the mood change after the gunshots begin?
Answer: The mood changes from happy and carefree to frightening, painful, and tragic.
Pages: 127 and 130–133
24. What makes evidence relevant and sufficient?
Relevant means closely connected, appropriate, or important to the current matter
Sufficient means having or providing as much as is needed, meaning enough or adequate for a specific purpose.
Answer: Relevant evidence connects directly to the claim. Sufficient evidence gives enough support to fully prove the claim.
5. What does Will remember seeing after Dani was shot?
Answer: He remembers Dani’s eyes being wide and their brightness slowly dimming.
Page: 133
10. What is juxtaposition?
Juxtaposition is when an author places two very different or opposite things close together to emphasize their differences.
15. What does the phrase “the brightness dimming” represent?
Answer: It represents Dani’s life fading away after she was shot.
Page: 133
20. Why does Reynolds place happy childhood images next to violent images?
Answer: He wants to emphasize how suddenly and cruelly gun violence can destroy childhood innocence.
25. Make a claim about Reynolds’s message and support it with two details.
Reynolds contrasts Dani’s childhood innocence with her violent death to show that gun violence destroys young lives. He first describes Dani playing on the monkey bars with sunshine in her eyes. Later, he describes “bubble gum and blood.”
Pages: 127 and 133