Vocabulary
This word means “to stop suddenly,” the way Grace’s brothers reacted when they first saw Naledi and Tiro.
Answer: What is “halt” or “stop short”?
These two younger boys were Grace’s brothers who welcomed Naledi and Tiro.
Answer: Who are Paul and Jonas?
The township where Grace and her family live — the same place that erupted during the 1976 student protests.
Answer: What is Soweto?
Naledi first notices this object hanging on Grace’s wall, which leads to the story of Dumi.
Answer: What is the photograph?
Grace blames this system for teaching children “only what the white government wanted them to know.”
Answer: What is apartheid education?
A word meaning “curious or eager to know,” describing Paul and Jonas asking about rivers and crocodiles.
Answer: What is “inquisitive”?
This young man, shown in a photograph, became a symbol of courage for his family.
Answer: Who is Dumi?
Naledi and Tiro say they once collected water from this natural source, now dried up.
Answer: What is the river?
This is what Dumi and his friends wrote on their protest banner about how Black people were treated.
Answer: What is “BLACKS ARE NOT DUSTBINS”?
The photograph symbolizes this emotional quality for Grace’s family—they keep it even though Dumi is missing.
Answer: What is hope?
This word describes how the lamp light moved on the walls as Grace told her story.
Answer: What is “flickering”?
This character’s sharp comment about how they “wash and clean up for others all day” reveals anger at inequality.
Answer: Who is Grace?
The year when many students marched and were attacked by police, including Dumi.
Answer: What is 1976?
This weapon caused burning eyes and panic during the march.
Answer: What is tear gas?
Naledi’s late-night questions about whether freedom means living with her mother show this theme.
Answer: What is longing for family / separation due to poverty?
This word means “to take part in public demonstration,” which Grace and Dumi did with thousands of students.
Answer: What is “protesting” (or “marched”)?
The child who lies awake thinking about freedom, Dineo, and their mother’s delayed arrival.
Answer: Who is Naledi?
The place Dumi says he is living and studying in, though he never reveals its name.
Answer: What is another country?
This tragic event happens to a little girl near Grace during the protests.
Answer: What is she is shot and killed?
The fact that Dumi writes from a secret location suggests he is part of this type of struggle.
Answer: What is the resistance movement (or anti-apartheid struggle)?
This word means “to stop existing or be impossible to find,” describing what happened to Dumi the night he left.
Answer: What is “disappeared”?
This person warned Grace not to talk too much about Dumi for fear he would get into trouble.
Answer: Who is Paul?
These two types of police vehicles appeared during the protests, intensifying the violence.
Answer: What are steel tanks and helicopters?
This is what Dumi’s final letter promises he will return to fight for.
Answer: What is FREEDOM?
The image of “fire” in Grace’s story symbolizes both destruction and this powerful force for change.
Answer: What is revolution (or uprising)?