English 2 Reading Guide: Ender's Shadow

Directions: Answer the following questions as you read the novel.
1. Where does Bean live? Where did he escape from? How did Bean get his name?
2. Bean is hyper-intelligent but extremely young. What do all of his experiences center around?
3. Who is Poke? How does Bean come to know Poke? What does Bean do so they can eat?
4. Bean's incredible mind, creativity, and determination bring him to the attention of Sister Carlotta. She is in charge of what?
5. Where is Battle School?
6. What did Bean find out on his journey to Battle School?
7. Who does Bean meet at the training facility Battle School?
8. How did the Battle School leaders keep track of students' whereabouts?
9. What is Dragon?
10. What are buggers?
11. What is Ender's responsibility?
12. What does Bean do to become friends with Ender?
13. Who is Bean compared to at Battle School?
14. Who is Nikolai Delphiki? What does Sister Carlotta discover about Bean and Nikolai?
15. Back at the lab scientist Volescu turned Anton's Key, what does that mean for Bean?
16. How does Bean know so much about Ender?
17. Where is Bean assigned?
18. The teachers and the officers choose Bean for what position?
19. How does Ender view Bean and his abilities? Who does Ender believe is most capable of taking over for him should he fail?
20. How does Bean learn so much about the students in Battle School?
21. What arrangements does Sister Carlotta make for Bean once the war is over?
22. Is Bean important to the fate of the earth?
23. Who is Achilles? Why was he successful in initially becoming a leader?
24. Why was Achilles at first considered unsuitable for Battle School?
25. Achilles and Bean are both intelligent, both are survivors of the streets, and both are willing to kill. What is it that makes Bean a "hero" and Achilles a "villain"?
26. Many of Bean's activities are anti heroic, urging the killing of a downed cripple, crawling through vents to spy on teachers, stealing passwords to access computer information. Is Bean a hero because or in spite of those types of activities?
27. Who are the members of Bean's family and his community?
28. How does the absence of a birth family affect Bean?
29. What does Bean realize about all of their "games" against Mazer?
30. Ender commands his ship to attack the planet in the final battle. What does Bean realize about this attack? What does he do?
31. Which student is admired the most at Battle School?
32. What if the responsibility of the adults at Battle School.
33. No one realizes that these battles are real, and thus Bean is the one to tell the other squadron leaders that the war is over. What quality does Bean possess that helps him to realize many things that no on else does?
34. What happens to Bean in the end of the story?