Everything I Never Told You

1. In what year does the book take place?

A) 1977

B) 1979

C) 1953

D) 1964

2. Who else in the Lee family has gone missing besides Lydia?

A) James

B) Nath

C) Hannah

D) Marilyn

3. What is the biggest reason Nath doesn’t want to tell his parents that Lydia has been hanging out with Jack Wolff?

A) He doesn’t like Jack.

B) He has been keeping their friendship a secret.

C) He is jealous of Lydia’s friendship with Jack.

D) He wants to talk to Jack himself.

4. How did Marilyn’s high school principal respond to her request to take shop instead of home economics?

A) He let her take the class.

B) He said that she couldn’t because it wouldn’t fit in her schedule.

C) He said that she could take any other class instead.

D) He said that having a girl in the class would be distracting for the boys.

5. What happened during Marilyn’s first class with James on the Cowboy in American Culture?

A) Marilyn decided that she didn’t need to take it and left.

B) James asked Marilyn out a date.

C) Other students left during the lecture.

D) James stopped his lecture after a student made a racist comment.

6. What is a similarity between how James was treated as a kid and how he is treated as an adult?

A) He dislikes his parents.

B) He is excluded by his peers for being Chinese.

C) He is proud of his Chinese heritage.

D) He hopes to teach at Harvard.

7. What was the first fact Marilyn told James about her mother?

A) that her husband had left her

B) that she wanted to Marilyn to find a husband

C) that she would not accept James

D) that she was a home economics teacher

8. What is significant about Marilyn and James’ wedding day in terms of Marilyn’s relationship with her mother?

A) It is the last time that Marilyn sees her mother.

B) It is the first time her mother is supportive of her dream to become a doctor.

C) It is the first time that her mother leaves Virginia.

D) It is the last time they are together before Nath is born.

9. What does Jack tell the police about his relationship with Lydia?

A) that they were dating

B) that she was always upset because of her grades, Nath leaving for school, and her parents’ expectations

C) that he didn’t see her the afternoon she died because they hadn’t been speaking

D) that he had tried to convince her to talk with her parents

10. Why doesn’t James want Marilyn to work?

A) He wants her to take care of Nath and Lydia.

B) He’s afraid of how it will look.

C) He doesn’t think she can handle it.

D) He doesn’t want her to work at the university with him.

11. What does Marilyn keep of her mother’s possessions?

A) her crockpot

B) her favorite sweater

C) her journals

D) her Betty Crocker cookbook

For the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

12. What does James tell the police when they ask if Lydia has played with the boat on the lake?

13. What had been impossible for Marilyn and James?

14. What is the term used for people who pretended to be someone’s relative when Congress restricted immigration from China?

15. Why does James stop speaking Chinese with his parents?

16. What does it mean that James “wasn’t the right fit” to teach in the history department at Harvard?

17. What does Marilyn learn when she opens Lydia’s diaries?

18. Who unfastens the safety lock that Marilyn has installed?

A) Nath

B) Jack

C) James

D) Hannah

19. Why does Marilyn’s use of the word “kowtow” during an argument upset James?

A) He wants her to see he’s trying his hardest to find out what happened to Lydia.

B) He remembers the racist connotations of the word.

C) He’s upset with the police too.

D) He thinks she knows he’s having an affair.

20. Who stops Nath from fighting Jack at the lake?

A) James

B) Marilyn

C) Hannah

D) Dr. Wolff

21. Why does Officer Fiske think Marilyn left?

A) because she was kidnapped

B) because she wanted to be alone

C) because she is unhappy

D) because she and James are of different races

22. What does Jack say that upsets Nath?

A) Marilyn is never coming back.

B) One parent is enough.

C) His parents will always love Lydia more.

D) Nath will never be an astronaut.

23. What does James do to permanently damage his relationship Nath?

A) He slaps him.

B) He tells him that they can’t go to the lake.

C) He says he wishes Nath had never been born.

D) He pays more attention to Lydia.

24. What item reminds Lydia of Marilyn?

A) the big red Betty Crocker cookbook

B) the meals she left in the freezer

C) the diaries she gave her

D) the clothes in her closet that smell like her

25. What does Lydia say that distracts their parents from Nath’s acceptance into Harvard?

A) She tells them she wants to go there.

B) She tells them that she’s been hanging out with Jack Wolff.

C) She tells them that they’re ignoring Hannah.

D) She tells them that she is failing physics.

26. After Officer Fiske calls and reports that they’ve concluded their investigation, how does James respond when Marilyn says that if Lydia “were a white girl, they’d keep looking”?

A) that race played no part in the investigation

B) that he wants a divorce because Marilyn should be with a white man

C) that if Lydia were white, none of this would’ve happened

D) that he needs to focus on Nath and Hannah now

27. How does Marilyn find Louisa’s address?

A) She finds it on a piece of paper in James’s coat.

B) She has been there before.

C) She asks the history department’s secretary.

D) She checks the telephone directory.

For the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

28.  Why does Marilyn search Lydia’s room?

29.  What does Nath do that surprises Hannah?

30.  What does Marilyn mean in the note she left for James? What does it mean to James?

31.  What does Lydia do to make it seem like she is popular?

32. What does James give Lydia as an early sixteenth birthday present?

A) a history textbook

B) a locket

C) a bracelet

D) a ticket to visit Nath at Harvard next year

33. Why is Lydia upset when James drops her off to take her driver’s test?

A) She didn’t study.

B) She’s nervous that she won’t pass.

C) She thinks he is having an affair with Louisa.

D) She feels alone because Jack isn’t there.

34. Why does the clerk at the liquor store allow Nath to buy a bottle of whiskey?

A) He thinks Nath is old enough and doesn’t ID him.

B) He feels bad because Nath’s sister died.

C) He is friends with Nath.

D) It’s the end of his shift and he doesn’t care.

35. What does James realize about Marilyn on his drive to Toledo?

A) that she loves him but will never be happy

B) that he is better off with Louisa

C) that she has also experienced discrimination as a woman in a male-dominated world

D) that she will never be able to understand his experience as the son of Chinese immigrants

36. Why doesn’t Lydia tell Nath about her concern that James is having an affair?

A) He is too excited about his visit to Harvard.

B) She knows that he and James already have a rocky relationship.

C) She is embarrassed for thinking about it.

D) She is worried he will tell Marilyn.

37. Why doesn’t Jack sleep with Lydia?

A) He thinks Nath will be mad at him.

B) He doesn’t want to ruin their friendship.

C) He’s worried they’ll get caught.

D) He has feelings for Nath.

38. Why does Lydia go to the lake?

A) It’s the only place where she feels like herself.

B) She wants to swim across it as a symbol of starting over.

C) She and Jack always met there.

D) She remembers their family trips there when she was a kid.

39. What happens when Marilyn accepts that she has to move on?

A) Lydia comes home.

B) She envisions Lydia sleeping in her bed.

C) She gives Hannah Lydia’s old biology textbook.

D) She enrolls in college classes to finish her degree.

40. Why does Nath stop punching Jack?

A) He finally admits that Jack had nothing to do with Lydia’s death.

B) He realizes that Jack is in love with him.

C) He is pushed into the lake by Hannah.

D) He imagines Lydia in the rowboat.

For the following questions, write a one-sentence response based on details in the story.

41.  Who notices that Lydia “was balanced on a dangerous, high-up ledge”?

42.  Why does Marilyn hug Hannah after looking through Lydia’s books?

43.  What advice does Lydia give Hannah when she takes the locket back from her?

44.  Why doesn’t Nath swim underwater, the faster way to get closer to Hannah and Jack?