Elsewhere

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

PROLOGUE-PART 1, CHAPTER 3

Reading Check

1. From whose perspective is the book’s Prologue told?

2. What aspect of Liz’s appearance does Thandi find unusual?

3. What makes Liz and Thandi different from most of the people they encounter?

Short Answer

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

1. Where is Liz when she wakes up in Chapter 1, and what does she see out the window?

2. Who is Curtis Jest, and what is implied about the manner of his death?

3. What finally convinces Liz to accept that she is not dreaming?

Paired Resource

“Ghost in the Land of Skeletons”

• This accessible Christopher Kennedy prose poem reflects on the fear of death and what it means to be fully alive.
• This resource relates to the theme of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change.
• Why does the speaker seldom smile? What do you think they find comforting about ghosts, especially those who do not realize they are dead? How does the speaker’s feelings relate to Liz’s experience of trying to accept her own death?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 1-5

Reading Check

1. What is Liz’s grandmother’s name?

2. Who does Liz consider checking on when she learns about the Observation Decks?

3. What is the last thing Liz said before she died?

Short Answer

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

• How does the ship’s arrival in port illustrate an important difference in the ways Liz and Thandi react to difficult events?
• What happens to people as time passes in Elsewhere?
• When Aldous explains the “Sneaker Clause” to Liz, what does she immediately want to know?

Paired Resource

“The Brief History of the Dead”

• This Kevin Brockmeier short story describes events in a mysterious city of the dead and their relationship to the memories of the living.
• This resource relates to the themes of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change, The Power of Love in All Its Forms, and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• Why do the residents of the city disappear? What point does this make about the importance of relationships and/or humanity’s capacity for folly? What elements of this story remind you of Elsewhere?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 6-9

Reading Check

1. Who is Amadou Bonamy?

2. What does Liz spend Betty’s money on, instead of clothes?

3. What is Liz surprised she can do when she begins working at the Division of Domestic Animals?

Short Answer

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

1. Where is Liz focusing most of her attention during her first month in Elsewhere?

2. What are the two ways that people in Elsewhere can contact Earth?

3. What does Amadou do that changes Liz’s perception of him on the day she plans to dive?

Paired Resource

“This Is It?”

• This 1-minute animated video asks a pointed question about the meaning of life.
• This relates to the themes of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change, The Power of Love in All Its Forms, and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• What do the objects the human is collecting represent? Why are they all piled on the grave at the end? What question about life is this short film asking?

“What’s an Existential Crisis and How Can I Overcome It?”

• This resource from Psych Central explores what it means to have an existential crisis and offers suggestions for coping with one.
• This relates to the themes of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change, The Power of Love in All Its Forms, and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• In what ways might Liz be experiencing an existential crisis? Based on the article, what advice would you give her to help her cope?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 10-15

Reading Check

1. What gift does Liz want to get her father for his birthday?

2. When Owen first died, whom did he spend all of his time trying to contact?

3. What kind of skills does Liz ask Owen to teach her?

Short Answer

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

1. What advice does Betty give Liz about how to cope with missing her life on Earth?

2. How does the toast to “laughter and forgetting” sum up the way the residents of Elsewhere have learned to be happy? (165)

3. What does Liz’s joke about Owen getting a tattoo for her demonstrate about how her attitude toward change and loss has evolved?

Paired Resource

“Love Is the Answer”

• This 6-minute video features a performance of Jason Mraz’s song about accepting impermanence and the power of love.
• This resource relates to the themes of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change and The Power of Love in All Its Forms.
• According to the song, what “question” does love answer? Do you agree? What other answers would you propose? How does Mraz’s perspective compare with Liz’s perspective at this point in Elsewhere?

PART 2, CHAPTERS 16-20

Reading Check

1. What important person in Owen’s life arrives in Elsewhere in Chapter 16?

2. Which characters show up looking for Liz on the morning of her scheduled Release?

3. Who does Liz learn is actually Owen’s grandfather?

Short Answer

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

1. What frustration about her life in Elsewhere does Liz express to Curtis when she tells him about her upcoming Release? How does he respond?

2. How does Liz end up on the ocean floor?

3. How is Jen’s advice partially responsible for Liz’s reunion with Owen?

Paired Resource

“Spring and Fall”

• This Gerard Manley Hopkins poem contemplates how we learn to accept the fleeting nature of life.
• This resource relates to the themes of Accepting Loss and Embracing Change and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• For what reasons is Margaret, the person mentioned in the poem, crying? How does the speaker’s understanding of this reason differ? What evidence is there in Elsewhere that Liz has learned to accept that life and its pleasures are fleeting and out of human control?

PART 3, CHAPTER 1-EPILOGUE

Reading Check

1. What is Liz’s answer when Betty asks her what her life choice is?

2. What dog does Liz acquire after Sadie’s Release?

3. Who babysits Owen during Liz’s Release?

Short Answer

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

1. What task does Owen help Liz with during Zooey’s wedding?

2. When Liz finally meets Amadou, what does she tell him about the hit and run?

3. What textual details from Chapter 7 and the Epilogue tell the reader that Liz is not unhappy about becoming a baby and being born into a new life as a new person?

Recommended Next Reads 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

• Seventeen-year-old Mia is caught between life and death after a terrible car accident. As she reviews what her life has meant, she must choose whether to continue living or let go and join her family in the afterlife.
• Shared themes include Accepting Loss and Embracing Change, The Power of Love in All Its Forms, and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• Shared topics include YA speculative fiction/fantasy, coming of age, death and grief, life purpose, and relationships.
• If I Stay on SuperSummary

The Everafter by Amy Huntley

• Drifting in a vast darkness, 17-year-old recently deceased Madison discovers that she has the ability to revisit—and potentially change—key moments from her life.
• Shared themes include Accepting Loss and Embracing Change, The Power of Love in All Its Forms, and The Role of Choice and Agency in Human Life.
• Shared topics include YA speculative fiction/fantasy, coming of age, death and grief, the afterlife, life purpose, and relationships.