• What have you learned or gained from your family? What lessons would you like to pass on to future generations?

• Where do you find the strength and courage to get through difficult times?

• What would you be willing to sacrifice for the sake of your beliefs or to help someone else?

• In what ways does the time in which you live influence who you are?

• How does a person hold onto self- respect, even when the world seems against him or her?

• How does Cassie feel about returning to school? Do you share her feelings about the first day of school?

• What do you learn about the setting of the story from these first pages? Fill in your setting chart with the specific details. (See Think Sheet 4.)

• Draw a picture of the Jefferson Davis County School, using the details provided by the author.

• What significant conflicts are established in this part of the story? What do you predict might happen as a result of these conflicts?

• Draw a picture of Great Faith Elementary and Secondary School from the details provided in the text. How does your picture of Cassie's school differ from your drawing of Jefferson Davis County School? What inferences can you make based on this contrast?

• What do you learn about Cassie's character in this chapter? Record details on Think Sheet 5.

• Pick out passages of dialogue from this chapter, and explain how the use of dialect brings the characters to life or reveals their true feelings effectively.

• Why do you think Papa has come home? What is the real reason that Mr. Morrison is going to stay with the Logans when Papa goes back to the railroad?

• Does the description of the Logan home fit with your impression of the Logan family? Explain.

• What is the reaction of Mr. and Mrs. Avery and Mr. and Mrs. Lanier when Papa says that his family doesn't shop at the Wallace store? Why do you think they have this reaction?

• Would you have solved the problem of the bus in the same way that Stacey and the others did? Why or why not? What is revealed about their relationships with one another?

• Why do you think Jeremy Simms never rides the bus?

• How is the Logans' daily confrontation with the bus symbolic of a larger conflict?

• Describe what Cassie sees when she sneaks out of her room. How does she feel when she heads back to bed?

• Add details to your setting chart from this and previous segments of the book.

• Why are T. J. and Stacey friends? Would you stay friends with T. J.?

• Add details to your character map of Cassie.

• Compare and contrast one of the following pairs: Stacey's attitude toward Mr. Morrison before and after the incident at the store; T. J. and Stacey; Cassie before and after the night men's arrival; school in the 1930s and in the present.

• How does your understanding of what the land means to the Logans deepen after reading this chapter? Does your family have something that means the same to them?

• Write about your reaction to an event or to something you learn in this part of the book.

• Summarize the dilemma of the sharecroppers as explained by Mr. Turner.

• What does the gun in the store represent to T. J.? Have you ever wanted something that you couldn't have?

• What do you learn about setting from Cassie's run- ins with Mr. Barnett and Mr. Simms? Why doesn't Big Ma take Cassie's side?

• Write a diary entry that Cassie might have written after her day in Strawberry.

• Add details to your character chart of Cassie.

•Identify and explain examples of foreshadowing from this and previous chapters.

• Why do you think T. J. reacts the way he does to Stacey's new coat?

•How does Cassie feel toward Big Ma after the episode in Strawberry? Why? Would you have felt this way? Explain.

•What main idea is Mama trying to convey to Cassie when she speaks to her after the incident in Strawberry?

• Draw a symbol to represent the character of each member of the Logan family.

• What is Uncle Hammer trying to teach Stacey? Why?

• What does Cassie mean when she says the adults "lent us their memories"? Why do they tell of the bad times as well as the good?

• What lessons have you learned from your family? Explain.

• Why do you think Jeremy visits the Logans on Christmas Day? Does Stacey's reaction surprise you? Why or why not?

• Do you agree with Papa's advice to Stacey about his friendship with Jeremy? Explain.

• Compare and contrast the attitudes of Mr. Jamison and Mr. Granger.

• Add details to your character map of Cassie from this and previous chapters.

•Would you have chosen Cassie's way of getting back at Lillian Jean? Why or why not? How is she following her father's advice?

• Does Mama have integrity? Explain.

• Why does T. J. tell the Wallaces about Mrs. Logan? Do you feel sorry for T. J.? What could he have done to make things right with Stacey?

• Explain why Mr. Avery and Mr. Lanier must stop shopping in Vicksburg.

• Why are R. W. and Melvin Simms hanging around with T. J.? What does T. J. get out of it?

• What are some instances of irony in this chapter?

• Draw a Logan family tree, including what you know about Cassie's grandparents and great- grandparents. How does Cassie's family resemble the fig tree?

• Describe the relationship between Stacey and Jeremy. How is their friendship different from T. J. 's relationship with Jeremy's brothers?

• Explain what T. J. means when he says, "It- it didn't even make no difference." Do you share Cassie's sympathy for him as he stands alone outside the church?

• Describe the mood of the scene at the Averys. What emotions did you have while reading this scene? How does the author make you feel these emotions?

• Analyze the words of the song that begins Chapter 11. What is the theme of the song? How does it relate to the story?

• What does thunder represent in this story?

• Why do you think the author ends the story in this way?

• What are your feelings about what happens in this chapter?

• Describe the effect of the fire and T. J. 's fate on Cassie.

• What themes are reinforced or brought out by this last chapter?