Mosquitoland

Reading Check and Short Answer questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Part 1

Reading Check

1. According to Mary Iris Malone, who is “not okay”?

2. What day of the year does Mim tell Isabel is special to her and her mother?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. According to Mim’s letter to Isabel, why is Mim angry with her father?

2. What was Makundi’s reaction to the treatment Dr. Wilson prescribed for Mim?

3. What does Mim discover in the money can?

Paired Resource

“Who Can You Trust? Unreliable Narrators”

• This 8-minute PBS video introduces the idea of the unreliable narrator and gives clear illustrative examples.
• This resource relates to the themes of The Search for Identity and Coming of Age and the Road Novel.
• What is an unreliable narrator? So far, what evidence does the reader have for Mim’s reliability or unreliability? How is this question related to her age, her journey, and her reasons for this journey?

Part 2

Reading Check

1. What behavior of Mim’s caused her father to first become worried about her mental health?

2. How does Mim alter her appearance when she is in her hotel room?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Mim explain her loss of vision in one eye?

2. How does Mim end up with the box Arlene was carrying?

3. What aggressions does Poncho Man commit against Mim in the restaurant bathroom?

Paired Resource

“Is It Normal to Talk to Yourself?”

• This Medical News Today article explains when self-talk is and is not a cause for concern.
• This resource relates to the theme of The Search for Identity.
• Based on your understanding of this article, what would you tell Mim’s father about her talking to herself? Does Mim seem to understand herself well enough to know whether she should or should not be concerned by her own behaviors? After reading about Mim’s father’s reaction to her talking to herself, what do you think Arnold wants the reader to understand about Mim’s father and about Mim?

Sexual Violence Education Resources for Instructors (teacher-appropriate; not student-facing)

• Chapter 11 contains a depiction of sexual violence against Mim. The following websites are excellent resources for educators looking for more information about how to talk with students about this issue:

○ Teach Consent

○ The National Sexual Violence Resource Center

○ Boston University Student Health Services

Part 3

Reading Check

1. What singers does Mim say she likes because they are two of her mother’s favorites?

2. What is Mim’s favorite shop during her stop in Nashville?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What are the main two concerns that Mim has about either telling or not telling about what Pancho Man did to her?

2. What does Mim seem to be trying to claim for herself by claiming Cherokee ancestry?

3. Why does Mim break the Talking Heads album?

Paired Resource

“David Arnold’s Cherokee Protagonist in Mosquitoland”

• This review of the problematic portrayal of Native identity in Mosquitoland, as well as the author’s response and reader comments, appears in the American Indians in Children’s Literature blog, written by Nambé Pueblo Dr. Debbie Reese. (This piece contains brief references to details students have not yet encountered in the text and may be more appropriate as a teacher-facing resource or as student resource later in their reading. It is offered at this point as a resource for discussing the troubling racial tropes included in Parts 2 and 3 of the novel.)
• This resource relates to the themes of The Search for Identity, Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story, and Escapism.
• What flaws in Mim’s character is Arnold trying to illustrate through the ways Mim thinks about Native identity? Was it already clear to you as a reader that Arnold knows Mim’s way of thinking is a problem, or did you realize this for the first time when you read his response to Dr. Reese’s review? If this story is about Mim learning to accept herself and others and becoming more mature, what kind of evidence would it take, later in the story, to convince you that she has grown in her thinking about Native identity?

Part 4

Reading Check

1. What toy is Walt playing with when Mim meets him?

2. Who stops Caleb from attacking Al?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Mim decide to leave the bus in Independence, Kentucky?

2. How does Walt come to be living by himself in the woods?

3. How does Beck get a black eye?

Paired Resource

“Denial: How it hurts, how it helps, and how to cope”

• This article explains the psychology and consequences of denial.
• This resource relates to the theme of Escapism.
• In psychological terms, what is “denial”? So far in the narrative, where have you seen Mim use denial as a coping strategy? Do you see evidence that she is starting to question this strategy or move past it in any way?

Part 5

Reading Check

1. Of whom did Mim become afraid as a result of seeing a man with a disfigured face?

2. What kind of doctor do Mim and Beck end up taking Walt to?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Mim learn about why Beck is traveling?

2. What memory of eating Chinese food with her mother does Mim share in her letter to Isabel?

3. Why does Beck feel that he has failed Claire?

Part 6

Reading Check

1. What does Beck talk about in the hotel room that causes Mim to fall into a trance-like state?

2. Who unexpectedly shows up when Mim is visiting her childhood home?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What does Mim see in the newspaper in the gas station?

2. Why is Mim upset when she gets out of the shower in the hotel room?

3. When Mim is at her childhood home, what does the reader learn about the letters Mim has been writing?

Paired Resource

“In Blackwater Woods”

• The speaker of this Mary Oliver poem shares insight about grief, loss, and how to move on.
• This resource relates to the themes of Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story and Escapism.
• What advice does the speaker give about accepting trauma and loss? At this point in her journey, how much of this message do you think Mim would agree with? Why?

Part 7

Reading Check

1. What has Eve been hospitalized for?

2. Before leaving the hospital, what does Mim do for her mother?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. On her car ride with Kathy, what does Mim realize about the letters between Kathy and her mother?

2. What family tragedy does Mim write to Isabel about in Chapter 40?

3. What plan of Beck’s does Mim learn about from the baseball program that he leaves taped outside the hospital?

Recommended Next Reads

Whirligig by Paul Fleischman

• After 16-year-old Brent Bishop accidentally causes a death, he undertakes a journey of repentance that touches many lives along his path.
• Shared themes include The Search for Identity, Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story, and Escapism.
• Shared topics include realistic fiction, death by suicide, depression, grief, and letting go of the past.
• Whirligig on SuperSummary

The Voice in My Head by Dana L. Davis

• In this YA novel, twins Violet and Indigo are inseparable. When Violet becomes terminally ill, Indigo decides to listen to the voice in her head that’s telling her to save Violet by taking her to a remote rock formation in the Arizona desert.
• Shared themes include The Search for Identity, Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story, and Escapism.
• Shared topics include realistic fiction, mental health, family relationships, grief, and adventure.

Me (Moth) by Amber McBride

• McBride’s YA novel follows recently orphaned Moth as she hits the road with a new friend, Sani, to find out more about her family identity and herself.
• Shared themes include The Search for Identity, Coming of Age and the Road Trip Story, and Escapism.
• Shared topics include realistic fiction, mental health, romance, grief, and adventure.