70 pages 2 hours read

Louise Erdrich

The Sentence

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

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

CHAPTERS 1-3

Reading Check

1. Who arrests Tookie?

2. Who supplies Tookie with books in prison?

3. What does Kateri give to Tookie?

4. What is the nickname Tookie gives to the man who never likes her recommendations?

Short Answer

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

1. Why was Tookie annoyed by Flora when she was alive?

2. Why does Tookie think she is more susceptible to seeing ghosts than other people?

3. How do Asema and Tookie react when the white woman tells them about her great-aunt who found Indigenous American skeletal remains?

4. What does Tookie think killed Flora?

Paired Resource

Birchbark Books

  • This is the website for the actual Birchbark Books in Minneapolis.
  • This resource connects to the theme of The Resilience and Importance of Indigenous American Identity.
  • What might be difficult about writing a real place as fictional? How does the realism of Birchbark Books lend itself to the novel? What challenges might present themselves if you include yourself as a character in your own fiction?

CHAPTERS 4-8

Reading Check

1. What is Hetta’s baby’s name?

2.