Reading Schedule & Reading Response Questions
Sold by Patricia McCormick
Bring your novel to every class meeting.
Complete the reading and literature circle role assignment.
If you are absent, you are still responsible for the reading and responses.
Quizzes / Test. Our novel study will include quizzes and culminating test on the novel. If you are absent (excused) for a quiz
or test, you must make it up on the day you return. Missed tests and quizzes must be made up during Tutorial.
Due Dates
Pages
2/1 (A) 2/2 (B)
2/3 (A) 2/4 (B)
Book Check
Out
1-29
2/5 (A) 2/8 (B)
30-59
2/9 (A) 2/10 (B)
60-91
2/11 (A) 2/12 (B)
92-122
2/17 (A) 2/18 (B)
123-152
2/19 (A) 2/22 (B)
153-181
2/23 (A) 2/24 (B)
182-212
2/25 (A) 2/26 (B)
213-244
2/29 (A) 3/1 (B)
245-263
3/4 (A) 3/7 (B)
Review
3/8 (A) 3/9 (B)
End of
Novel Test
Return
Book
Discussion
Director
Summarizer
Literary Device
Director
Vocabulary
Director
Discussion Director: Your role is to come up with 1 higher-level discussion questions for the group meeting. You will lead the
discussion taking notes on your group’s response to your question. Questions must be thought provoking and debatable. You will
turn in your question with the discussion notes after every meeting.
Summarizer: Your role is write a summary of the reading, emphasizing main plot events, ideas, conflicts, or key points. The
summary will be used to start the group discussion.
Literary Device Director: Your role is to identify at least 2 important literary devices for each group meeting. You should look
for things like similes, metaphors, personification, allusion, symbolism, imagery, irony, internal and external conflict
characterization, tone, mood, and other significant devices. For each device include a cited quote. Also be sure to label the device.
During the meeting, you will go over these devices and examples for your group, allowing for discussion and questioning from
other members about the author’s reasons for these choices and the impact on the readers (you). You will turn in your after every
meeting.
Vocabulary Director: Your role is to pick out at least 3 difficult or descriptive words from each section to bring to the meetings.
You must write the word, the definition, and a properly cited quote that includes that word. During the meeting you will explain
the meanings to your classmates. Be sure that the definition you select makes sense in context!
Each class meeting you will be given an additional assignment related to the reading.
Reading Response Questions
Pages 1-24
1. Who is the main character in this book (age, gender, name)? What is her life like? What point of view is this story
told from?
2. What are the gender roles in Nepal, where Lakshmi lives? What are the expectations of men and women?
Pages 25 - 37
3. What is Lakshmi’s life like living in poverty in Nepal?
4. The author writes, “Then the baby awakes. And with each drip and plink and plop and ping he laughs and claps his
hands. Each drip new. Each plink and plop and ping fresh and strange and musical to his tiny ears” (McCormick
26). What literary device is the author using in this passage? Explain how you know what it is.
5. The author writes, “She twirls him in the air, her skirts flying around her ankles the way the clouds swirl around
the mountain cap” (McCormick 26). What literary device is the author using? Explain how you know what it is.
Pages 38 – 66
6. Now, Lakshmi has been sold at the age of thirteen. Why was she sold? Predict what will happen; what will this
mean for her life?
7. The author writes, “The news is like a tiny earthquake, shaking the ground beneath my feet” (McCormick 48).
What literary device is the author using? Explain how you know what it is.
Pages 67 -109
8. Lakshmi compares herself to a water buffalo. What is the significance of this?
9. At this point in the story, what has happened to Lakshmi?
10. What is the significance of the line: “Not one looks up” (McCormick 109).
11. The author writes, “She is, under the folds of her yellow dress, frail as a baby bird” (McCormick 92) What literary
device is the author using? Explain how you know what it is.
12. Find an example of imagery on pages 98-99. Quote the line(s). Write a lead-in and two-part commentary for the
quote you chose.
Page 110 – 134
13. How did you feel after reading these pages? Find a passage from this section that affected you. Quote the line(s).
Write a lead-in and two-part commentary for the quote you chose.
Pages 135 – 155
14. After finally being released from the room she was locked into, Lakshmi is moved downstairs with the other girls.
The girls in the Happiness House watch American television and have pictures of movie stars hanging on their
walls. What is the significance of this?
15. What happened to the new girl who came to the house after Lakshmi?
16. Compare the vignette on pages 15-16 entitled, “Everything I need to know” with the vignette on pages 141-143
entitled, “Everything I need to know now.” How does this show the transformation of Lakshmi’s life throughout
the book? How is her life different from the beginning of the book?
17. The act of pretending comes up throughout the book. Explain what Lakshmi pretends. Choose a quote that
supports your answer. Include a lead-in and two-part commentary in your response.
18. Explain what the other girls in the house pretend. Choose a quote that supports your answer. Include a lead-in and
two-part commentary in your response.
Pages 156 – 168
19. Reread the vignette “Two Worlds” on page 166-168. What two worlds is the vignette referring to?
20. What is the difference between these two worlds? Cite one quote that supports your response. Include a lead-in
and two-part commentary in your response.
21. What are your thoughts on this vignette?
22. What point is the author trying to make through this vignette?
Pages 169 – 183
23. What does the old yellow pencil symbolize on page 163?
24. The symbol of a pencil comes back on page 182. What does the new yellow pencil symbolize?
Pages 184 – 202
25. What happened to Monica?
26. What happened to Harish and his family?
Pages 203 – 215
27. Explain the meaning of the symbol of the shattering of the TV screen and the ripping of the movie star posters. Cite
quotes from the section to support your explanation. Include a lead-in and two-part commentary in your
response.
Page 216 - 231
28. What has Lakshmi turned into?
29. What are your thoughts about this development?
Pages 232- 263
30. At the very end of the book, Lakshmi found her voice. What are your thoughts about the way the book ended?
31. Holocaust survivor and author of Night Elie Wiesel said, "Let us remember: what hurts the victim most is not the
cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander." What does this quote mean? How does this statement
relate to the book Sold? Explain.
32. How would you describe the mood and tone of this book? Explain how the events of the story and the author’s
style contributed to the mood and tone.
33. Write a one-sentence theme for this book. Support your theme with specific details from the book.