Mosquitoland

Part 1

Reading Check

1. Mary herself (Mim) (Chapter 1)

2. Labor Day (Chapter 3)

Short Answer

1. She is angry that he moved her away from her mother and her hometown. (Chapter 2)

2. Dr. Wilson prescribed to Mim an antipsychotic medication that her former psychiatrist, Dr. Makundi, disapproved of. (Chapter 4)

3. She discovers letters between her mother and her stepmother. One that reads “Think of what’s best for her. Please reconsider” is not signed. (Chapter 5)

Part 2

Reading Check

1. Talking to herself (Chapter 7)

2. She cuts her hair. (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. She says that she lost vision in the eye from staring at a solar eclipse a few years before. (Chapter 6)

2. The bus is in an accident, and Arlene is killed. Mim takes the box because it does not seem right to leave it in the wrecked bus; she considers Arlene a friend even though they just met and feels a strong sense of loss. (Chapter 8)

3. He comments about her physical appearance, restrains her, and forcibly kisses her. She gets away by vomiting on him. (Chapter 11)

Part 3

Reading Check

1. Elvis and Johnny Cash (Chapter 12)

2. The record store (Chapter 13)

Short Answer

1. She worries that if she tells what Poncho Man did, it will delay her trip and prevent her from getting to her mother, but she also worries that if she does not tell, it will leave him free to assault other people. (Chapter 12)

2. She associates the Cherokee with courage and wisdom, and by claiming Cherokee heritage, she is trying to claim these qualities for herself. (Chapter 13)

3. She looked at but did not buy the album, and when she sees it in her seat, she immediately understands that Poncho Man followed her, watched her, and bought the album to leave in her seat for her. (Chapter 13)

Part 4

Reading Check

1. A Rubik’s cube (Chapter 16)

2. Ahab (Chapter 21)

Short Answer

1. She remembers that this is the town Arlene was traveling to and decides that she will look for Ahab herself so that she can give him the box Arlene was bringing to him. (Chapter 14)

2. Walt seems to have an intellectual disability, and since his mother has died and his father is in Chicago, he has few alternatives. (Chapter 17)

3. When he is in Jane’s diner, he realizes that Poncho has assaulted another girl, and he gets into a fight with Poncho. (Chapter 24)

Part 5

Reading Check

1. God (Chapter 28)

2. A veterinarian (Chapter 31)

Short Answer

1. He is traveling to visit his foster sister, whom he has not seen in a long time. (Chapter 27)

2. She and her mother would go to the Evergreen Asian Diner for “Kung Pao Mondays.” One Monday, her mother got a fortune cookie with a blank fortune and cried, interpreting this as a sign that she had “no future.” (Chapter 30)

3. He promised that he would always be there for her, but it has been so long since he has seen her that she does not even remember him. (Chapter 32)

Part 6

Reading Check

1. His encounter with Pancho Man at the diner (Chapter 34)

2. Kathy (Chapter 35)

Short Answer

1. She sees a missing persons report with her own picture next to it. (Chapter 33)

2. Beck and Walt are gone, and she is afraid they have abandoned her. (Chapter 34)

3. The “Isabel” Mim has been writing to is her soon-to-be-born half-sister, not her father’s sister of the same name. (Chapter 36)

Part 7

Reading Check

1. Depression (Chapter 38)

2. Puts some lipstick on her mother’s lips (Chapter 41)

Short Answer

1. She realizes that she misunderstood who wrote which letters and that it is actually Kathy who has been trying to protect Mim. (Chapter 37)

2. When Mim was six, her Aunt Isabel died by suicide, and Mim was the one who found her body. (Chapter 40)

3. Beck wants her to meet him at the stadium where they saw a baseball game together for the opening game in the spring. (Chapter 42)