IMPORTANT: Comprehension questions will be in chronological order as you read through the story. Page numbers are approximate, and will vary with different editions of the book.
Section 1: Chapters 1-3
Vocabulary
- Hypocritical: behaving in a way that suggests one has higher standards or more noble beliefs than is the case
- Pandemonium: wild and noisy disorder or confusion
- Peculiar: strange, odd or unusual
- Proverbial: a word or phrase referred to in a proverb or idiom
- Quivered: a slight trembling movement or sound; to tremble or shake with a slight rapid movement
- Repulsive: arousing intense distaste or disgust
- “It wouldn’t help to try to defend Miss Edmunds against their unjust
and hypocritical attacks.” (pg. 17) - “So the students of Lark Creek Elementary sat at their desks all
Friday, their hearts thumping with anticipation as they listened to the
joyful pandemonium pouring out from the teachers’ room, spent
their allotted half hours with Miss Edmunds…” (pg. 16) - “He thought later how peculiar it was that here was probably the biggest
thing in his life, and he had shrugged it off as nothing.” (pg. 10) - “‘You’re the proverbial diamond in the rough,’ she said to him once,
touching his nose lightly with the tip of her electrifying finger.” (pg. 17) - “The boys quivered on the edges of their seats like moths fighting to be
freed of cocoons.” (pg. 30) - “‘Jesse Aarons. That noise is pure repulsive.’” (pg. 29)
Comprehension Questions
- Jess doesn’t worry about wearing shoes when he runs as the bottom of his feet are tough. (pg. 1)
- May Belle is going on seven years old and she worships Jess. (pg. 2)
- In the last year Jess has won only one race. (pg. 4)
- Jess’s mother is from Georgia. (pg. 7)
- In the bean patch May Belle tells Jesse that people are moving into the old Perkin house. (pg. 10)
- May Belle hopes that the family next door has a girl aged either six or seven years old so that she will have someone to play with. (pg. 11)
- Jess mostly loves to draw animals, not ordinary ones, but crazy ones like a hippopotamus. (pg. 12)
- At school Miss Edmunds is one of Jess’s secrets. (pg. 14)
- The only thing Jess’s father says to him in the evening is that he was milking the cow late. (pg. 20)
- On the first day of school all of the kids are dressed in their spring Sunday best. (pg. 24)
- As Leslie stands in front of the class her eyes say, “OK, friends, here I am.” She is unconcerned about how differently she is dressed. (pg. 24)
- According to the upper grades the only time that Mrs. Myers ever smiles is on the first and last days of school. (pg. 25)
- As Mrs. Myers hands out books Jess toys with the idea of doing a whole book of drawings. (pg. 26)
- At school the children eat lunch at their desks. (pg. 29)
Section 2: Chapters 4-6
Vocabulary
- Angelic: exceptionally beautiful, innocent or kind
- Consolation: comfort received by a person after a loss or disappointment
- Foundling: an infant that has been abandoned by its parents and is discovered and raised by others
- Scrawling: something written or drawn in a hurried careless way
- Sneer: a contemptuous or mocking smile, remark, or tone
- Solemn: formal, dignified; not cheerful or smiling; characterized by deep sincerity
- “Jess could hardly keep a straight face in class just trying to imagine what
might be going on behind that angelic look of Leslie’s.” (pg. 56) - “Jesse knew that he would never be the best runner of the fourth and
fifth grades, and his only consolation was that neither would Gary
Fulcher.” (pg. 37) - “Maybe, he thought, I was a foundling, like in the stories.” (pg. 73)
- “But nothing he drew seemed good enough, and he would end up
scrawling across the half finished page and poking it into the stove to
burn up.” (pg. 74) - “At least if she had one, it would be one less thing for the kids at school to
sneer about.” (pg. 75) - “He nodded, and without speaking, they went back to the creek bank where
they shared together a solemn meal of crackers and dried fruit.” (pg. 60)
Comprehension Questions
- It is Leslie’s fault that running is no longer fun. (pg. 37)
- Miss Edmunds normal speaking voice bubbles up from deep inside her and is rich and melodic. (pg. 38)
- Mrs. Myers reads Leslie’s paper on scuba diving aloud. (pg. 42)
- When Leslie throws her head back while surrounded by friends he can tell that they are making fun of her. (pg. 45)
- The old crab apple tree is in an dried creek bed and a rope hangs from its branches. (pg. 49)
- If you look up while swinging on the rope across the gully its feels as though you are floating. (pg. 49)
- Leslie names the secret land that she and Jess have made in the woods Terabithia. (pg. 51)
- During the first hours of school Jess and Leslie try to avoid each other so that no-one knows about their friendship. (pg. 55)
- Leslie takes the sleeping bags that they kept at the castle back to the Burke’s because her father notices that they are missing. (pg. 57)
- Jess tells Leslie that she is more than a friend to him, she is his other more exciting self. (pg. 59)
- Jess and Leslie know that the real giant in their lives is Janice Avery. (pg. 61)
- When Janice Avery and her friends stand outside the girl’s room they make the little girls give up their milk money before they are allowed to go into the bathroom. (pg. 61)
- After Janice Avery steals May Belle’s Twinkies, Leslie and Jess plan revenge on her by making her look a fool over a love letter. (pg. 65)
- When Jess and Leslie are crouched in the stronghold of Terabithia they
Section 3: Chapters 7-9
Vocabulary
- Clambered: to climb, move, to get in or out of something in an awkward and laborious way, typically by using both hands and feet
- Complacent: showing smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one’s achievements
- Flounce: go or move in an exaggeratedly impatient or angry manner
- Inclined: favorably willing or disposed toward an action or belief
- Obliged: to feel legally or morally bound to an action or a course of action
- Sporadically: occasionally or at irregular intervals
- “Jess tickled her to get her giggling again, so that when the four of them
clambered down over the tail gate, they were flush-faced and happy
once more.” (pg. 106) - “Jess was glad to escape to the shed and the complacent company of
Miss Bessie.” (pg. 102) - “They were a little late, which didn’t bother Ellie and Brenda for it meant
that they got to flounce down the entire length of the aisle to the first
pew, making sure that every eye in the church was on them, and every
expression of every eye a jealous one.” (pg. 106) - “For all his smartness with politics and music, Mr. Burke was inclined to be
absentminded.” (pg. 89) - “‘I’d be obliged if you’d finish milking and come on back to the house.’” (pg. 104)
- “The rain continued sporadically, so that by the Wednesday the creek
had swollen to the trunk of the crab apple and they were running
through ankle-deep water to make their flight into Terabithia.” (pg. 115)
Comprehension Questions
- Jess can’t go to Terabithia alone because it needed the magic that Leslie brought to it. (pg. 83)
- When Jess sneaks down to the Perkins house he sometimes sees Prince Terrien crying on the porch. (pg. 85)
- Jess’s feelings about Leslie’s father poke up like a canker sore, which you keep biting on and make worse. (pg. 86)
- Jess, Leslie and Bill come upon the rusty bricks in the fireplace while ripping off the boards that covered the fireplace. (pg. 88)
- Jess, Leslie and Bill paint the Burke’s living room gold. (pg. 88)
- Terabithia was made for just Jess and Leslie. (pg. 89)
- Leslie says that she and Jess have been away from Terabithia for many years even though it has only been a month. (pg. 90)
- During recess Leslie hears Janice Avery crying in the girl’s bathroom. (pg. 92)
- Thanks to Jess, Leslie has one and a half friends at Lark Creek School. (pg. 97)
- Jess compares the delicateness of life to a dandelion. (pg. 99)
- For the first time in many years the creek bed has rushing water in it. (pg. 100)
- The only time the Aaron’s go to church is at Easter. (pg. 100)
- Jess’s dad comes home from early from Washington because he has been laid off from his job. (pg. 101)
- Jess and the little girls sit in the bed of the pickup on the way to church. (pg. 106)
Section 4: Chapters 10-13
Vocabulary
- Constrict: make narrower, especially by encircling pressure
- Dread: to anticipate with great apprehension or fear
- Liberated: showing freedom from social conventions or traditional ideas
- Lopsided: with side lower or smaller than the other
- Regard: to consider or think of someone or something in a specified way
- Relentlessly: to be or pursue something in an increasingly intense or harsh way
- “The coldness inside of him had moved upward into his throat
constricting it.” (pg. 151) - “He could only remember the mood of dread it had brought with it.” (pg. 134)
- “ ‘…I’m a liberated woman Jesse Aaron…’” (pg. 128)
- “Through the curtainless window he could see the lopsided moon with
hundreds of stars dancing in bright attendance.” (pg. 134) - “He was suddenly ashamed that he’d thought he might be regarded with
respect by the other kids.” (pg. 157) - “His father went quietly and relentlessly on.” (pg. 131)
Comprehension Questions
- Jess wants to tell Leslie about his needing a gut transplant because that is the kind of nonsense that she enjoys. (pg. 122)
- When Miss Jenkins call Jess on the telephone she invites him to go to Washington to see the Smithsonian or the National Gallery. (pg. 123)
- When Jess enters the gallery it is like entering the pine grove, it was a sacred place. (pg. 127)
- Jess believes the only thing that can keep Leslie from being dead is if he keeps on running. (pg. 132)
- While Jess is running his father picks him up like a baby. (pg. 132)
- Through the curtainless window Jess can see the lopsided moon with hundreds of stars. (pg. 134)
- The day after Leslie dies, Jess’s mother tells him his father had milked Miss Bessie for him the night before. (pg. 137)
- After Leslie dies, Jess’s mother serves pancakes for breakfast. (pg. 137)
- When Jess’s father pats him on his shoulder he realizes that his father is not angry that he had to do the milking. (pg. 138)
- Jess wants to leave the Burke’s house during the memorial service as he feels he is being smothered. (pg. 144)
- Jess believes that only he had cared for Leslie. 145)
- Jess the paints and paper that Leslie had given him into the creek by the crab apple tree where Leslie had died. (pg. 146-147)
- When PT spends the night at Jess’s house he sleeps on Jess’s bed. (pg. 149)
- When Jess and PT return to the stronghold they make a funeral wreath for the queen. (pg. 152)