The Lemonade War

Use these essay questions as writing and critical thinking exercises for all levels of writers, and to build their literary analysis skills by requiring textual references throughout the essay. 

Scaffolded/Short-Answer Essay Questions

Student Prompt: Write a short (1-3 paragraph) response using one of the below bulleted outlines. Cite details from the novel over the course of your response that serve as examples and support.

1. Jessie struggles with making friends and understanding what other people are thinking.

• How does Jessie change in these areas during the story? (topic sentence)
• What does Jessie do and say, and what do other characters do and say, that shows Jessie is changing? Give at least three examples and explain why these examples demonstrate growth from Jessie.
• Finally, discuss in your concluding sentence or sentences how Jessie’s growth relates to the book’s theme of resolving emotional conflict.

2. This book contains a lot of advice about starting a business--but not everyone wants to start a business. How might the book’s advice about business also apply to other kinds of activities in a person’s life, such as school, sports, volunteering, and so on?

• What is one activity besides starting a business that the book’s business advice could also apply to? (topic sentence)
• What are three pieces of business advice from the book that apply to this activity, and why do they apply?
• Finally, describe in your concluding sentence or sentences how the book’s theme of best business practices can be applied to life outside of the business world.

Full Essay Assignments

Student Prompt: Write a structured and well-developed essay. Include a thesis statement, at least three main points supported by text details, and a conclusion.

1. Both Jessie and Evan face challenges in this book. Some of the challenges come from inside them (internal conflicts) and some come from outside them (external conflicts). Write an essay in which you compare and contrast either the internal or the external conflicts that these two siblings face. Whether you choose internal conflicts or external conflicts, be sure that you stay focused on showing how Jessie and Evan face some similar and some different challenges.

There are a lot of ways to organize this essay, though it is probably best to choose ONE of the following:

• You can write all about Jessie and then all about Evan (or vice versa).
• You can write all about how the siblings’ challenges are similar and then all about how they are different.

However you organize your ideas, be sure to support them with examples from the text.

2. Jessie uses books to help her understand the world a little better. Write an essay that has two parts:

• In the first part of your essay, explain what Jessie learns from her books. Tell what each book is, what lessons she learns from each book, and what details in the text prove that she is trying to apply these lessons in her real life.
• In the second part of your essay, explore how the idea of learning from other people’s stories applies more generally in the world.
• You might write about how books, television shows, movies, videos, or podcasts have taught you important lessons about how the world works, or you might do some research and discuss how someone else in the real world used ideas from books or other sources to learn important lessons about the world.
• Just like in the first part of your essay, be sure to name specific stories that helped you--or someone else--learn about the world, and give examples of how the stories’ lessons applied to real-life situations.
• If you look up information for this part of your essay, you should make a list of the sources you used at the end of your essay. Set the list up in the way that this 3-minute Imagine Easy Solutions video demonstrates. This is called “MLA format.”