Kenny
Why is Kenny different than other children?
Kenny is incredibly smart, and he has a lazy eye. He was outreading 5th graders in 2nd grade. He can also read a book upside down.
How do Byron and his friends treat Kenny?
They treat him very poorly; they bully him. But if Kenny needed Byron, he would be there for him.
Who is Larry Dunn? What did he do to Kenny?
Larry Dunn is the kid that Kenny puts on a pedestal. Larry is the biggest bully, but he's also the most popular in school. He stole Kenny's dinosaurs.
Why are Kenny's parents sending Byron to Alabama to be with Grandma Sands?
They are sending him because of his rebellious behavior and bad influences in Flint are getting out of hand.
What does it mean to be juvenile? Which character in the story is this?
Juvenile means young and immature. Kenny is an example of a juvenile character.
How is Kenny's upbringing different than Rufus's?
Kenny grows up in an industrial northern city while Rufus comes from a rural southern background. Rufus comes from a more poor community.
What story does Byron make up? Why does he make this up?
Byron tells his younger siblings, Kenny and Joey, that because their mother is originally from Alabama, they have "thin Southern blood." He claims that if they do not bundle up tightly in the Michigan winter, they will instantly freeze to death on the street. According to Byron, the city's early morning garbage trucks are actually driving around to collect the frozen bodies of people who didn't dress warmly enough.
Primarily in their geographic backgrounds, family financial struggles, and how they experience school. Rufus comes from a very poor family, whereas Kenny comes from a very small circle.
What does momma have in her notebook? What plans does it consist of?
Momma carries a small notebook, which details a meticulous, minute-by-minute and dime-by-dime plan for their cross-country road trip from Flint, Michigan, to Alabama.
What theme is the novel based around? What does it mean?
The theme of the novel is coming of age. This is all about the growth of an individual from each stage of their life. In the novel it shows Kenny as a young, immature boy, but by the end of the novel he is strong and mature.
How and why do Kenny's feelings change about Larry Dunn towards Chapter 4?
Kenny's feelings change from anger to empathy for Larry Dunn after he sees Larry wearing poor, thin clothes and realizes Larry stole his gloves out of desperate need. Even though he has been a bully since the dinosaur incident.
What does Byron do to help Kenny? (with Larry Dunn and at Collier's landing).
Byron sticks up for Kenny against Larry Dunn because he stole Kenny's gloves. He was also the one to pull Kenny out of the water at Collier's landing.
How did Kenny and Rufus become friends? How did Kenny react at first?
Kenny and Rufus become friends after the teacher sits Rufus next to Kenny on the school bus and in class. Kenny was shocked that Rufus sat next to him, and was worried he was going to keep getting teased more due to Rufus's ripped up clothes.
How do Byron and Kenny feel about their grandmother?
Byron seems intimidated by his grandmother, while Kenny doesn't think she looks very scary. Kenny expects Byron to act like his normal, rebellious self when he interacts with Grandma Sands, but instead, he kept his head down. Byron does not want his grandmother to be mad at him.
What are all the ways that make a strong paragraph?
Strong claim/topic sentence, 4 details with explanations, concluding sentence, good punctuation, answers the prompt, uses adjectives
How does Kenny's perspective on killing the bird differ from Byron's?
Kenny is excited that Byron hit the bird, while Byron is upset that a life has been lost.
How does Byron's family respond to his predicament? What happened to him that made them respond this way?
His family responds with humor, frustration, and strict discipline. He gets his lips frozen stuck to the car mirror, while admiring his reflection.
What does dad decide to do instead of stop at a hotel? Why does he decide this?
Dad decides to drive straight through to Alabama without stopping for overnight hotel stays, going against Momma’s meticulously planned itinerary due to not being able to find a safe place to stop; it being in the South where racism is at its peak.
What is internal conflict vs. internal monologue?
Internal conflict is a challenge you are facing within yourself about a situation, person, or thing. Internal monologue is the conversations you have in your head.
How does family dynamics shape one's identity?
Family dynamics shape one's identity by serving as the primary blueprint for values, emotional habits, and social roles long before adulthood.
What happened in Collier's landing? What was the reality vs. the imagination?
Kenny went to Collier's landing after momma told him he wasn't allowed to go. He ended up getting drowned by a whirlpool, but envisioned Winnie the Pooh's evil twin (Wool Pooh) as the monster that was pulling him deeper into the water. A vision of Joetta is what pulled him back up.
Why is Byron considered to be a complex character?
Byron has a lot of different character traits that are hard to read. He puts up a strong front, but then he will do something unexpected later on. He constantly shifts between acting like a cruel, rebellious juvenile delinquent and showing deep sensitivity, protectiveness, and maturity.
What does Kenny believe he sees in the church?
He believes he sees a man carrying a little girl's body covered in blood, and later mistakes a small, shiny black shoe in the rubble for belonging to his sister, Joetta, leading him to believe she was a victim of the bombing.
What happened at the church? Where did Kenny's family go after?
A bomb was planted by the Ku Klux Klan that explodes at the 16th Street Baptist Church during Sunday school. Kenny rushes to the scene, witnesses the devastating wreckage and injured victims, and mistakenly believes Joey was killed. They moved back to Flint, Michigan.
What was the mood from the beginning of the novel to the end?
It started off lighthearted and humorous, and transitioned to somber, tense, and tragic by the end.