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

Introduction-Chapter 4

Reading Check

1. What inspires Ishmael to write his memoir?

2. Where is Ishmael from?

3. Who taught Ishmael how to cook?

4. What do the boys find when they return to Mattru Jong?

Short-Answer Response

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

1. Why was the trip to Mattru Jong, in retrospect, useless?

2. What is the effect of moving back and forth between New York City and Sierra Leone in this memoir?

3. Why were the villagers in Mattru Jong left unguarded when the rebels returned?

Paired Resource

First They Killed My Father

• First They Killed My Father on SuperSummary
• A memoir by Loung Ung remembering the Cambodian genocide under Pol Pot
• A novel that connects to the theme of The Traumatic After-Effects of Violence
• How do these two memoirs of violence and genocide compare?

Hotel Rwanda

• A film touching on the theme of The Capacity for Altruism in Human Nature during the Rwandan genocide
• What are the scope and limits of the perspective Ishmael Beah gives us on the Sierra Leone Civil War?