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: First Picture-Fourth Picture
Vocabulary
- iridescent: a shimmering or sparkling color pattern
- lurch: to walk uncontrollably, to stagger
- mangy: shabby or in poor condition
- meander: to walk aimlessly or without a goal
- perch: a bar that a bird rests on
- skitter: to move lightly or in a hurry
- whittle: to carve wood into a shape
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- It moved and rolled, it shimmered, it glowed iridescent silver. (Ch. 2, pg. 23)
- Steven lurched along. (Fourth Picture, pg. 39)
- I tried to yawn, but then the front door opened, and a woman came out on the porch with a mangy orange cat one step behind her. (Ch. 1, pg. 7)
- A painted pelican was perched over the stove. (Ch. 2, pg. 19)
- And then we skittered out to where I couldn’t see anything but water in front of us. (Ch. 2, pg. 24)
- “Not all of it is for whittling,” she told me. (Ch. 2, pg. 18)
Comprehension Questions
- Hollis wants the letter “W” to stand for “wish,” want,” or “Wouldn’t it be lovely.” (First Picture, pg. 1)
- Hollis feels she needs only a pencil and piece of paper to get along. (First Picture, pgs. 2-3)
- When Hollis looked into the eyes of the mustard woman, she saw that she felt sorry for, but didn’t know what to do with Hollis. (Ch. 1, pg. 6
- What stands out most about Josie Cahill when Hollis first sees her is that she is holding a knife. (Ch. 1, pg. 7)
- The stucco woman wants to send Hollis to the country for two months because then she won’t have to deal with her. (Second Picture, pg. 13)
- Hollis couldn’t get a perfect picture of she and Steven playing checkers because she saw what it was like to have a brother. (Second Picture, pg. 17)
- When Hollis gives Josie permission to work on her tree figure, Josie responds saying that she has already started. (Ch. 2, pg. 25)
- When Hollis catches her first fish, she slips on the rocks and almost falls into the river. (Third Picture, pg. 28)
- Hollis knows that Josie sometimes forgets things. (Ch. 3, pg. 31)
- Hollis watches Josie dance in the street instead of doing homework. (Ch. 3, pg. 36)
- The Old Man gives Hollis a set of colored pencils, a drawing pad, and an eraser. (Fourth Picture, pgs. 37-38)
- Hollis tells herself not to think about the “W” picture that shows a mother, father, brother, and sister. (Fourth Picture, pg. 40)
Section 2: Chapter 4-Eighth Picture
Vocabulary
- bleak: dreary, plain, or miserable
- dainty: small, delicate and pretty
- frenzied: wild or uncontrollable
- hammock: a cloth bed suspended between two objects
- linger: to spend a long time doing something
- motto: a phrase that a person lives by
- stanchion: an upright bar supporting something
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- It was winter bleak, but the houses were pretty. (Fifth Picture, pg. 48)
- Josie’s legs were bare, with dainty spider veins showing, and her silky shoes were soaked with snow and spray. (Ch. 5, pg. 54)
- We were frenzied that last week in August. (Eight Picture, pg. 77)
- …: hat down over his eyes in the first, standing in front of the river in the next, sleeping in the hammock in the third. (Fifth Picture, pg. 47)
- It was that lingering cold note. (Ch. 5,pg. 51)
- I had changed the motto though. (Seventh Picture, pg. 69)
- …: then at last she reached into the mass of foam that had settled around the stanchions of the pier. (Ch. 5, pg. 53)
Comprehension Questions
- Beatrice is impressed with Hollis’ Artwork. (Ch. 4, pg. 43)
- Beatrice teaches Hollis how to deepen the shadows on a drawing of the sea. (Ch. 4, pg. 44)
- Beatrice knows that Hollis loves Josie because of how she drew her. (Ch. 4, pgs. 45-46)
- Hollis was named after “Holliswood,” the place where she was abandoned as a baby. (Fifth Picture, pg. 48)
- Hollis will have to go to school if she wants to stay with Josie. (Ch. 5, pg. 54)
- Beatrice is going to New Mexico to paint the adobe houses and desert. (Ch. 6, pgs. 55-56)
- When the Izzy and the Old Man go out to the movies, Steven teaches Hollis how to drive. (Sixth Picture, pg. 60)
- When Hollis hears it will be a foggy day, she decides to go to take another day off school and go to the pier. (Ch. 7, pg. 63)
- Hollis decided that, before the end of summer, she was going to climb the mountain and yell at the top of her lungs that she finally has a family. (Seventh Picture, pg. 71)
- Josie says that Henry, Hollis and herself will fly to the ends of the earth in the Silver Bullet. (Ch. 8, pg. 76)
- Hollis felt that fitting into a new family would be like jamming a puzzle piece into the wrong spot. (Eight Picture, pg. 79)
Section 3: Chapter 9-Chapter 12
Vocabulary
- bewildered: confused or amazed
- incorrigible: refusing or unable to be corrected
- lurch: to walk uncontrollably, to stagger
- poach: to boil an egg without its shell
- rummage: to search hurriedly and messily for something
- silhouette: a dark shape outlining something or someone
- wade: to trudge through water
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- She was shivering again, looking up at me, suddenly bewildered. (Ch. 11, pg. 103)
- “Someone called me incorrigible” (Eleventh Picture, pg. 124)
- The pole slid out of my hands as I lurched backward toward the holly bushes. (Ch. 11, pg. 108)
- Maybe it was someone cutting down a tree, or poaching in the Old Man’s wood. (Ch. 11, pg. 109)
- There’d be no time to buy anything, not even enough time to rummage through the back to find the bags of food. (Ch. 9, pg. 85)
- At first it was hard to see, but little by little the silhouettes appeared against the sky:… (Ch. 10, pg. 89)
- Josie was wearing Izzy’s wading boots, which went up to her thighs. (Ch. 11, pg. 102)
Comprehension Questions
- Hollis calls back over her shoulder to remind Josie that that they are going to a safe house by the river. (Ch. 9, pg. 81)
- Hollis had learned that the first hours, when nobody knew she was missing, were the most important when she was running away. (Ch. 9, pg. 82)
- Hollis thinks the mustard woman will call the police when she realizes Hollis is missing. (Ch. 9, pg. 86)
- Hollis thinks that Beatrice will come home if she calls, ruining her dream of painting in the desert. (Ch. 10, pg. 89)
- The worst moment Hollis experiences when waiting for the bus is when she realizes that she will never see her drawing box again. (Ch. 10, pg. 90)
- Hollis raises her hands to her ears because she doesn’t want to hear the sound of the truck hitting the trees. (Ch. 10, pg. 95-96)
- Hollis feels guilty because she is the one who really wants to go to the mountaintop. (Ninth Picture, pg. 99-100)
- As Hollis serves toast and tea, Josie is wondering about Beatrice and smoothing Hollis’ face. (Ch. 11, pg. 105)
- Hollis is frightened when she sees a person standing among the trees. (Ch. 11, pg. 108)
- Hollis is going to shout about tough she is and that she belongs when she reaches the top of the mountain. (Tenth Picture, pg. 111)
- Hollis decides to give Josie a drawing of herself as a Christmas present. (Ch. 12, pg. 115)
- Hollis wanders around searching for a radio. (Ch. 12, pg. 117)
Section 4: Eleventh Picture-Fourteenth Picture
Vocabulary
- clench: to close ones fist in a tight ball
- encrusted: covered in a hard layer of something
- gouge: to make a groove or hole in something with a tool
- mantel: a shelf over a fireplace
- numb: unable to feel normal emotions
- pulsing: to throb rhythmically
- trudged: to walk heavily in harsh conditions
Vocabulary Usage in the Book
- And I looked over my shoulder at the Old Man’s face, his clenched jaw. (Twelfth Picture, pg. 135)
- Then I trudged over to the shed for the Old Man’s saw and found Steven’s sweater hanging on the knob, encrusted with snow. (Ch. 13, pg. 137)
- There’s a table in the center, someone’s initials, TR, gouged out of the wood. (Thirteenth Picture, pg. 144)
- She went on, telling me the history of each one, until the mantel was finished and the center of the table held a bowl of holly. (Ch. 13, pg. 131)
- It stung the inside of my nose and numbed my cheeks. (Ch. 13, pg. 126)
- There was a thin pulsing on the side of his neck, his eyes moving under the broken glasses. (Twelfth Picture, pg. 134)
- Then I trudged over to the shed for the Old Man’s saw and found Steven’s sweater hanging on the knob, encrusted with snow. (Ch. 13, pg. 127)
Comprehension Questions
- At the top of the mountain, Hollis tells herself she is going to attend school, be nicer, and be a new person, turning over “a new leaf.” (Eleventh Picture, pg. 121)
- Steven describes the “W” picture as a “wishing picture” when Hollis shows it to him. (Eleventh Picture, pg. 123)
- Steven knew Hollis had to stay with them when she let him win the checkers game. (Eleventh Picture, pg. 124)
- Hollis hears Christmas music playing from inside the cabin. (Ch. 13, pg. 127)
- Hollis wants an egg for Christmas because of all the ways she can prepare it. (Ch. 13, pg. 130)
- Hollis doesn’t ask Josie if she picked up the sweater because she knows she wouldn’t remember, anyway. (Ch. 13, pg. 132)
- After staying with the stucco woman for most of September, Hollis ran away. (Twelfth Picture, pg. 137)
- Hollis doesn’t like to think about next year because she doesn’t know where she will be. (Ch. 14, pg. 139)
- The blurry picture on Steven’s dresses is of the river. (Ch. 14, pg. 142)
- Hollis remembers that Beatrice told her there are things in the drawings that she didn’t know were there before. (Ch. 15, pg. 150)
- Josie tells Hollis that Santa Claus looks “cold.” (Ch. 16, pg. 153)
- Hollis signs her picture using all three names because she wants to remember who she used to be, and all those names belong to her. (Fourteenth Picture, pg. 165)