The Endless Steppe

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

Chapters 1-3

Reading Check

1. What is Esther's house in Poland built around?

2. Which army occupies Vilna in 1940?

3. What is Tata's profession?

Short Answer

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

1. Why is Vilna called "the Jerusalem of Europe"?

2. What does Esther's great-grandmother Reisa do to cheat the Nazis?

Chapters 4-6

Reading Check

1. What work are the Polish children required to do?

2. What do both Esther and her grandmother enjoy doing when they go to the village square to trade?

3. Where does Mother work after the family moves to town?

Short Answer

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

1. What is one of the uses of the mined gypsum?

2. How does Anya transform vanity into an act of courage?

Paired Resource

“The Jewish Community of Vilnius”

• This page on the ANU (Museum of the Jewish People) website provides a brief history and photographs of the Jewish community in Vilna.
• This resource relates to the themes of Human Connection Across Class and Racial Barriers, The Human Need for Belonging, and Adaptability and Resistance to Change.
• In Vilna, Esther's family was well-to-do and well respected. What effect does coming from that background have on her ability to withstand both physical hardship and antisemitism?

Chapters 7-10

Reading Check

1. What does Esther come to love about Siberia?

2. What is used to protect skin against frostbite?

3. What do Esther and Svetlana eat together?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Esther improvise when her family cannot afford to buy her notebooks for school?

2. Why do the police accuse Esther's father of running a synagogue?

3. What do the secret police want Father to do?

Paired Resource

“Life in Siberia”

• The Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group offers text, photos, and drawings that provide a vivid look at the life of the Polish deportees to Siberia.
• This resource relates to the theme of Human Connection Across Class and Racial Barriers.
• How do the experiences of the Polish deportees to Siberia compare with those of the people sent to concentration camps? How are they alike? How are they different?

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. What are the novostroyka in Rubtsovsk?

2. What does Esther use to dye the gauze for curtains?

3. What gift from Uncle Yozia and Aunt Zaya is Mother unable to resist?

Short Answer

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

1. What do Esther and her friends think of Deanna Durbin?

2. Why does Father leave Rubtsovsk?

3. What criminal behavior does Esther resort to out of desperation?

4. What is wrong with the sweater Esther knitted for Marya Nikolayevna?

Paired Resource

“The WWII Polish Deportations – Still an Untold Story”

• This article summarizes the "A Forgotten Odyssey – The Untold Story of 1,700,000 Poles Deported to Siberia in 1940" documentary and includes several video excerpts.
• This resource relates to the theme of Adaptability and Resistance to Change.
• What is it in human nature that compels survivors of atrocities to share their stories of suffering and loss? Why can it be difficult to listen to those stories? Should people feel obliged to listen?

Chapters 16-19

Reading Check

1. What does Esther plan to recite for the declamation contest?

2. What does Mother call out to help Esther find her way home in the blizzard?

3. What is one of the main uses for books people bought at the market?

Short Answer

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

1. How are Esther and Mother able to spend one winter in warmth, with enough food?

2. Why is Esther the last to recite in the declamation contest?

3. What are the teachers like at the new school Uncle Yozia enrolls Esther in?

Paired Resources

“Montgomery County Students Walk Out of Cass to Protest Antisemitic Incidents” 

• This student activism report follows several antisemitic incidents at Washington, D.C., area schools.

“2022 Antisemitism in Schools Survey” 

• This report summarizes findings of a survey conducted by the Jewish Community Relations Bureau indicating that a majority of students in the Kansas City area felt antisemitism was a problem at their school.

“Sunnyvale High School Sharply Focuses on Antisemitism”

• This news article describes a school assembly on antisemitism following years of incidents at a high school in California.
• These resources relate to the theme of Human Connection Across Class and Racial Barriers.
• Compare the accounts of present-day antisemitism in schools with Esther's experiences in Poland and Siberia decades ago. How are they similar? What has changed? How effective are things like walkouts, surveys, and assemblies in combating antisemitism in schools?

Chapters 20-22

Reading Check

1. What position is Esther elected to at school?

2. What does Esther ask to borrow from a theater troupe?

3. What two items does Esther want for her return to Poland?

Short Answer

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

1. How are the German POWs received when they are transported to Rubtsovsk?

2. Where does Esther want her father to go after the war ends?

3. How are the deportees treated when they arrive in Poland?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

• This young adult novel is about an orphan girl who lives in Germany during WWII. She becomes fascinated with books and the power of words. Her adopted family harbors a young Jewish man, with whom she becomes friends.
• Shared themes include Adaptability and Resistance to Change and Human Connections Across Class and Racial Barriers.
• Shared topics include The Holocaust and other atrocities of WWII, survival, and human behavior.
• The Book Thief on SuperSummary

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

• This fictionalized account of the experiences of people who were deported from the Baltic States in 1940 and sent to forced labor camps in Siberia is told from the point of view of a 15-year-old girl who captures the experiences of the hardships her family endures in writings and drawings.
• Shared themes include Human Connections Across Class and Racial Barriers, The Human Need for Belonging, and Adaptability and Resistance to Change.
• Shared topics include exile, coming of age, and human behavior.
• Between Shades of Gray on SuperSummary