English 3 Reading Guide: The Rules of Survival By, Nancy Werlin
Genre: Multi Cultural Fiction
Subject Areas: Family relationships, violence, child abuse, mental illness, problem parents, secrets, intimidation, fear, anger, divorce, separation, love, dysfunctional families, lying and deceit, manipulation, self knowledge, survival.
Characters:
Matthew Walsh: he's grown up trying to protect himself and his two younger sisters from their violent and unstable mother.
Callie Walsh: two years younger than Matthew, she also understands the danger of their situation, and their need to be out of it.
Emmy Walsh: The youngest of the Walsh children, she is the one who puts them most in danger.
Nikki Walsh: beautiful, manipulative, selfish, and dangerous, the mother of Matthew, Callie, and Emmy regards her children not as individuals but as her property.
Ben Walsh: Matthew and Callie's father who feared Nikki and refuses to help the children escape from her.
Roberta O'Grady/Aunt Bobbie: Nikki's sister, who's been tormented by Nkki her whole life, fears her sister, and ignores the whole situation between Nikki and her children.
Murdoch McIlvane: a quiet man who likes the children and does what he can for them while dating Nikki, but thinks he cannot help them further.
Directions: Answer the following questions as you read the book.
1.Where does the story take place?
2. Describe Matthew's first memory.
3. There are many ways to survive in a dangerous situation. What are some of the ways Matthew, Callie and Emmy survive? (Refer to Matt's rules of survival on the back of the book)
4. Explain why Emmy prayed for Murdoch. Do you think she realized the effect that it would have on her mother? How might their lives have been different if she had just gone to bed that night?
5. Matthew describes Nikki as evil. In what ways do you think she exhibited this quality?
6. How did Matt and Callie's protecting Emmy endanger her instead?
7. Discuss the scene when Matthew and Callie saw Murdoch for the first time, and what characteristics he showed them in their brief interaction with them, and how the meeting changed their lives.
8. Why did Matthew describe his desire to meet Murdoch as an "obsession"?
9. Why did Matthew, Callie, and Emmy live in fear?
10. Describe the "miracle summer".
11. Discuss how the Walsh children's lives were different from and similar to the life of the POW's in the movie they watched with Murdoch. In what ways were they prisoners?
12. What did Nikki do to Callie to demonstrate the importance of hair to a woman?
13. Describe how Matthew and Callie felt when no one would help them. How did those refusals affect them emotionally? Why didn't Ben Walsh help?
14. Which character had "eyelids that folded up into their socket so neatly that is looked like she didn't have any"?
15. Nikki knew her children very well and knew exactly what buttons to push to manipulate them. Give several examples of her ability to do this.
16. Who does the following quote apply to:"some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them".
17. What were some of the reasons behind Nikki's eccentric and dangerous behavior? What did she gain by acting this way?
18. In what ways was Ben a good father?
19. Why was it so important for the children to pretend the summer with Murdoch had never happened? What might Nikki have done if they hadn't?
20. Why did Nikki take Emmy away on the day she forced Matthew and Callie to go to church without her? How was she punishing? How and why?
21. Why did Aunt Bobbie and Ben suddenly decide to start protecting the children? What caused them to start acting differently?
22. How does Matthew describe his mother?
23. Why did Nikki enjoy tormenting Bobbie as a child and an adult? What did she gain? How did it affect her children, Bobbie, and Nikki herself?
24. On page 126, Matthew describes the scene when Murdoch commits himself to helping the children. Why did he make that decision at that point?
25. What was Matthew's biggest fantasy?
26. Matthew says he never really learned to trust Aunt Bobbie. Why not? What prevented that bond from forming? What would have had to happen for Matthew to come to trust her completely?
27. Who drove Nikki into making a mistake that allowed Ben and Aunt Bobbie to gain custody of Matthew and his sisters?
28. When Nikki gt out of jail on Christmas Eve how had she changed?
29. Matthew said he changed in the boatyard when he came face to face with Nikki. What caused that change, and why did he say that it was irreversible?
30. Discuss Matthew's queen bee/mosquito theory. How did the change occur?
31. Why did Matthew tell this story?
2. Describe Matthew's first memory.
3. There are many ways to survive in a dangerous situation. What are some of the ways Matthew, Callie and Emmy survive? (Refer to Matt's rules of survival on the back of the book)
4. Explain why Emmy prayed for Murdoch. Do you think she realized the effect that it would have on her mother? How might their lives have been different if she had just gone to bed that night?
5. Matthew describes Nikki as evil. In what ways do you think she exhibited this quality?
6. How did Matt and Callie's protecting Emmy endanger her instead?
7. Discuss the scene when Matthew and Callie saw Murdoch for the first time, and what characteristics he showed them in their brief interaction with them, and how the meeting changed their lives.
8. Why did Matthew describe his desire to meet Murdoch as an "obsession"?
9. Why did Matthew, Callie, and Emmy live in fear?
10. Describe the "miracle summer".
11. Discuss how the Walsh children's lives were different from and similar to the life of the POW's in the movie they watched with Murdoch. In what ways were they prisoners?
12. What did Nikki do to Callie to demonstrate the importance of hair to a woman?
13. Describe how Matthew and Callie felt when no one would help them. How did those refusals affect them emotionally? Why didn't Ben Walsh help?
14. Which character had "eyelids that folded up into their socket so neatly that is looked like she didn't have any"?
15. Nikki knew her children very well and knew exactly what buttons to push to manipulate them. Give several examples of her ability to do this.
16. Who does the following quote apply to:"some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them".
17. What were some of the reasons behind Nikki's eccentric and dangerous behavior? What did she gain by acting this way?
18. In what ways was Ben a good father?
19. Why was it so important for the children to pretend the summer with Murdoch had never happened? What might Nikki have done if they hadn't?
20. Why did Nikki take Emmy away on the day she forced Matthew and Callie to go to church without her? How was she punishing? How and why?
21. Why did Aunt Bobbie and Ben suddenly decide to start protecting the children? What caused them to start acting differently?
22. How does Matthew describe his mother?
23. Why did Nikki enjoy tormenting Bobbie as a child and an adult? What did she gain? How did it affect her children, Bobbie, and Nikki herself?
24. On page 126, Matthew describes the scene when Murdoch commits himself to helping the children. Why did he make that decision at that point?
25. What was Matthew's biggest fantasy?
26. Matthew says he never really learned to trust Aunt Bobbie. Why not? What prevented that bond from forming? What would have had to happen for Matthew to come to trust her completely?
27. Who drove Nikki into making a mistake that allowed Ben and Aunt Bobbie to gain custody of Matthew and his sisters?
28. When Nikki gt out of jail on Christmas Eve how had she changed?
29. Matthew said he changed in the boatyard when he came face to face with Nikki. What caused that change, and why did he say that it was irreversible?
30. Discuss Matthew's queen bee/mosquito theory. How did the change occur?
31. Why did Matthew tell this story?
posted by M. Unterman at 4:41 PM
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