meet the walls
This alcoholic father often told his children tall tales about his past and promised to build a magnificent house for them.
Who is Rex Walls?
While cooking hot dogs at age three, Jeannette suffered severe burns from this element.
What is fire?
The titular structure Rex spent years designing but never actually constructed.
What is the Glass Castle?
Jeannette’s first "real" job in New York City was at a newspaper with this name.
What is The Phoenix?
An "excitement addict" and artist, this mother preferred painting to steady employment or consistent parenting.
Who is Rose Mary Walls?
Rex's term for the family's frequent, late-night escapes to avoid bill collectors.
What is "doing the skedaddle"?
Rex’s invention intended to help him find gold in the desert.
What is "The Prospector"?
To help fund her college tuition, Rex famously gave Jeannette a large sum of money he won by doing this.
What is gambling (poker)?
Jeannette’s younger brother who often served as her protector and partner-in-crime during their nomadic childhood.
Who is Brian?
The Walls family traveled to this West Virginia town to live with Rex’s mother, Erma, in a dilapidated house.
What is Welch?
Rose Mary refused to sell this item she found under a log, even when the family was starving.
What is a diamond ring?
Rose Mary owned land in this state that was worth nearly a million dollars, yet the family remained in poverty.
What is Texas?
This sibling was the oldest of the Walls children and was often the first to advocate for escaping their parents' lifestyle.
Who is Lori?
Instead of toys or standard gifts, Rex "gave" each of his children one of these for Christmas.
What is a star (or a planet)?
This tree, which grew twisted in the desert wind, was a favorite subject for Rose Mary's paintings.
What is a Joshua tree?
The book begins with Jeannette seeing her mother doing this in a New York City dumpster.
What is scavenging/digging for food?
The youngest sibling, she struggled the most with the family's instability and eventually moved to California.
Who is Maureen?
This desert town was where the children enjoyed relative stability and Jeannette befriended a neighborhood girl named Denise.
What is Battle Mountain?
This prestigious city served as the ultimate destination for the Walls children to find success and escape their past.
What is New York City?
Rex finally died from this condition, shortly after the family gathered for a rare, peaceful moment.
What is a heart attack?