How Dare the Sun Rise

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

Chapters 1-4

Reading Check

1. What organization operates the camp in Burundi where Sandra and her family take refuge?

2. Sandra notices that the attackers of the camp are speaking what two languages?

3. What is the name of the mountain range in South Kivu where Sandra was born?

Short Answer

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

1. In Chapter 2, Sandra describes her mother’s experience of marriage and rearing children. How does Sandra’s mother’s experience of marriage/children demonstrate how women are devalued in Banyamulenge culture?

2. When Sandra is in kindergarten, her father tells her that, one day, he thinks she could be president of Congo. How does this comment show that Prudence (Sandra’s father) is different from other fathers in their tribe?

Paired Resource

“The Small Tutsi Community at the Heart of Conflict in DRC’s Eastern Highlands”

• This video by AFP News Agency from 2020 describes how different ethnicities in the highlands of eastern DRC have been locked in violent conflict with one another. There are victims from all factions, including many Banyamulenge.
• Filmed years after Sandra’s story, this video shows that War and Displacement is ongoing in DRC.
• Did this news report give sufficient explanation about why the Banyamulenge are so reviled in the DRC? What is the origin of the conflict?

Chapters 5-8

Reading Check

1. Sandra’s mother begins operating what type of business out of her home, as described in Chapter 5?

2. What natural disaster caused Sandra and her family difficulty while living in Uvira?

3. When Prudence orders Sandra to pack her belongings in Chapter 7, what is the first thing she adds to the bag?

Short Answer

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

1. In Chapter 5, what is the reason that Sandra’s mother locks herself in her room and refuses to emerge for the entire day?

2. In the UNHCR refugee camp near Gatumba, how do Sandra and her family try to stay positive?

Chapters 9-12

Reading Check

1. Chapter 9 returns to the scene at the opening of the book, when Burundi rebels were shooting at Sandra’s refugee camp. Which relative assures Sandra that her mother is alive?

2. What was Alex wearing when Sandra and the family found him, after the chaos of the shooting had subsided?

3. The family learns that which brutal militia group had carried out the attack on their refugee camp?

Short Answer

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

1. When Sandra’s family relocates to Rwanda, they sometimes go for days without food or water. How does Prudence help the family keep hope alive?

2. Sandra goes to stay with a cousin in East Africa, in Chapter 12. What traumatic incident occurs there, further disrupting Sandra’s tenuous sense of normalcy?

Paired Resource

“Interview with the Authors of “How Dare the Sun Rise: Memoirs of a War Child”

• In this video, CBS News interviews Sandra Uwiringiyimana to learn more about her story and the process of writing How Dare the Sun Rise with co-author Abigail Pesta.
• Sandra underscores how she knew that the massacre—a feature of War and Displacement—would be the defining feature of her life, as soon as it happened.
• What do you think of Sandra’s reasoning for beginning the book with the massacre? Did your initial impression of the first scenes reflect Sandra’s intention?

Chapters 13-16

Reading Check

1. In Chapter 13, Princesse gets a scholarship to attend college in what city?

2. To Prudence, the cold air of Rochester, NY feels like what?

3. Where do Sandra and her family procure winter clothes in Chapter 15?

Short Answer

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

1. At the end of 2005, Prudence learns about a resettlement program organized by the UN, that would allow Sandra and the family to be resettled in the US. What was the application process like? How does it foreshadow Sandra and the family’s experience living in the US?

2. How do Sandra and her family react in their first-ever plane ride? What are some of the questions they wonder about the mechanics of the plane?

Chapters 17-20

Reading Check

1. Sandra’s mother and father get menial jobs in a factory. What is their role, exactly?

2. What is the reason that Prudence winds up in a coma in Chapter 18?

3. Who are Sandra’s three closest friends at Our Lady of Mercy?

Short Answer

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

1. List at least two ways that Sandra struggles with American concepts of beauty.

2. One of Prudence’s doctors proves to be especially useful to the family, and not just because of the work he did to help heal Prudence after his bike accident. In what way does this doctor help the family?

Paired Resource

“My Rise as a Refugee Girl: Why I’m Giving Back to Girls in South Sudan”

• In this first-person account, South Sudanese refugee Victoria Nassera tells the Brookings Institution why, after her own experience in refugee camps in Uganda and elsewhere, she has decided to devote her life to the education and empowerment of other South Sudanese refugee girls.
• Nassera sees that The Devaluation of Girls and Women is a pernicious issue that affects girls and women worldwide, especially refugee women.
• Though Nassera has a different experience of being a refugee, what are the similarities between her and Sandra’s experiences? How do you think Sandra would react to learning about Nassera’s soccer initiative?

Chapters 21-24

Reading Check

1. Sandra connects via social media with other refugees who survived the Gatumba Massacre, eventually meeting up with a group of them in which US city?

2. At the DVF Awards, which celebrity is seated near Sandra?

Short Answer

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

1. In Chapter 21, Sandra describes a racist encounter she had with a clerk at Banana Republic. What was this incident?

2. There are two primary reasons Rachel does not want Sandra to date in high school. What are those reasons?

Chapters 25-28

Reading Check

1. During her senior year of high school, what national tragedy occurs that causes Sandra to reflect upon how they had never had a trial for those who killed Deborah?

2. The night before Princesse’s wedding, Sandra observes that her paternal grandfather is very much like her father. What two adjectives does she use to describe him?

Short Answer

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

1. When Sandra returns to the refugee camp in Rwanda, what does she see that causes her to, ironically, be grateful for the massacre?

2. In her sophomore year of college, Sandra suddenly dreads returning to school. Why?

Paired Resource

“How Child Psychiatrist Essam Daod Saves Refugees from Trauma”

• In this video, Freethink interviews Essam Daod, a child psychiatrist who uses a groundbreaking approach to help Syrian refugees to heal from trauma.
• The trauma that comes from War and Displacement cannot be overstated, as evidenced in both this video and throughout How Dare the Sun Rise.
• What do you think Sandra would say about Daod’s technique of making refugees feel like heroes, to help mitigate and alleviate PTSD?

Chapters 29-32

Reading Check

1. The Women’s Refugee Commission invites Sandra to a summit in Washington, DC where she meets Queen Mathilde, the queen of what country?

2. What relative serves as mediator between Sandra and her mother in Chapter 31?

Short Answer

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

1. When Sandra meets President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House’s Correspondents’ Dinner, what does she say to them, and what other topics of conversation does she wish she could discuss with them, if she only had more time?

2. How does Sandra’s mother react to Sandra’s relationship with Rocco? In your response, explain Sandra’s philosophy on romantic relationships and how it differs from her mother’s.

Recommended Next Reads 

We Are Displaced: My Journey and Stories from Refugee Girls Around the World by Malala Yousafzai

• Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai collects stories of refugee girls worldwide, telling their harrowing and fascinating journeys of having to flee their homelands.
• The focus of this book is on girls and women, and as such often touches upon how many cultures Devalue Girls and Women, thus exacerbating refugee girls’ plight.
• As a collection of stories by and from refugees, their stories all are inevitably intertwined with themes of War and Displacement.
• We Are Displaced on SuperSummary.com; includes Teaching Unit

American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures by America Ferrera

• In this collection of essays edited by actress and activist America Ferrera, several notable individuals in TV and entertainment give first-person accounts of what it means to be “American.”
• Several of the essays are written by immigrants, thus exploring how War and Displacement can force individuals from other countries to make new homes in America.
• Further, many of the essays in this collection are written by people of color, and as such, many of them tell their experiences grappling with American Racism.
• American Like Me on SuperSummary; includes Teaching Unit