The Inheritance Games

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

Chapters 1-10

Reading Check

1. Whom does Avery play chess with?

2. What does Libby do when she feels guilty about something?

3. What does Jameson call Avery?

Short Answer

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

1. What speculations does Avery have about Tobias Hawthorne and why he left her his fortune?

2. What are the relationships between the Hawthorne family members like, and how do you know?

Chapters 11-20

Reading Check

1. What does Tobias’s vague note to Avery say?

2. What is the first thing Avery wants to do with her newfound fortune?

Short Answer

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

1. What does the reader discover about Libby’s boyfriend, Drake?

2. What do the Hawthornes suspect about Avery’s parentage?

3. How is Tobias described by the characters in the novel?

Paired Resources

Marie Antoinette & Lizzie Borden

• This 4-minute video provides a short biography of Marie Antoinette. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing; mentions of sexual content)
• This article describes the Lizzie Borden case. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing; violent descriptions of murder)
• Facts from the videos might help in guiding your class discussion of Oren’s comparison between Avery, Cinderella, and Marie Antoinette, and Libby and Avery’s comparison between the Hawthorne family and Lizzie Borden’s case. The novel’s themes of The Danger of Secrecy and The Manmade Construct of Class Differences might be addressed in connection.

Chapters 21-30

Reading Check

1. What is the Hawthorne Foundation?

2. What does Thea claim happened to the last girl who was tangled up with the Hawthornes?

Short Answer

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

1. What does Xander reveal as the first clue to the inheritance games?

2. What is the second clue discovered by Jameson?

Paired Resource

Inheritance and Family Squabbles

• This article describes the complicated process of inheritance for families and ways to prevent family fights over property. (Subscription may be required to view.)
• What are some repercussions of poorly distributed inheritance? What could Tobias have done to help ease some of the tension in Hawthorne House after his death? How is this article related to the themes of The Manmade Construct of Class Differences, The Danger of Secrecy, and The Power of the Absent Character?

Chapters 31-40

Reading Check

1. What does Jameson have on his torso?

2. Who is assigned to Avery as a security detail?

Short Answer

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

1. What grounds, according to Grayson, might the Hawthorne family have to bypass Tobias’s latest will?

2. What clue do Grayson, Avery, and Jameson discover in the library?

3. What is included in the Red Will, and how were they chosen?

Paired Resource

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus

• This 1.5-minute summary describes the plot of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.
• How is The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus related to the mood of The Inheritance Games? Why do you think Tobias chose this novel to reveal his hidden message? What are the similarities between this novel and The Inheritance Games? How is this resource related to the novel’s theme of The Danger of Secrecy?

Chapters 41-50

Reading Check

1. Who is Rebecca Laughlin’s sister?

2. Whom does Jameson blame for Emily’s death?

Short Answer

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

1.     Why does Avery hold an impromptu press conference?

2.     What does Jameson suspect the middle names of the grandsons represent, and what clue do they find?

Paired Resource

Social Mobility

• This article describes the experiences of those who move between social classes and how they feel about it.
• What are some hardships faced by those who move between social classes? How have some people learned to shift easily between social classes? How does this article reflect Avery’s experience in Hawthorne House, and how is it related to the novel’s theme of The Manmade Construct of Class Differences?

Chapters 51-60

Reading Check

1. What dangerous thing happens to Avery when she is in the Black Wood with Jameson?

2. What clue does Avery find on the Winchester rifle?

Short Answer

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

1. How did Emily make a “little game” with Jameson and Grayson? What parallels exist between Emily’s experience with the boys and Avery’s?

2. What are the loopholes in Tobias’s will, and why do they raise concerns for Avery?

Chapters 61-70

Reading Check

1. What are Avery’s three clues from the Red Will?

2. What media skill must Avery master before she is permitted to go to the gala?

Short Answer

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

1. What happens on Avery’s return home from her shopping trip, who is involved, and what is the implied reason for the person’s involvement?

2. What oversight does Nash point out after Libby is taken to be interviewed by police, and why is it suspicious?

Paired Resource

Complications of Instant Fame

• This article describes the experience of instant fame and some of the complications that can occur.
• How has the internet changed the way people become famous? What are some of the pressures and complications associated with instant fame? How is Avery’s experience with fame similar? How is instant fame related to the novel’s theme of The Power of the Absent Character?

Chapters 71-80

Reading Check

1. Why is Grayson shocked to see Avery before the gala?

2. What was Emily doing with Grayson when she died?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Oren suspect Drake was able to gain entrance to the Hawthorne Estate?

2. Why does Thea give Avery’s stylists a picture of Emily, and what do the stylists do with it?

3. Why is Jameson angry after decoding the Red Will clue?

Chapters 81-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. Whom does Rebecca accuse of working with Drake?

2. Who is Toby revealed to be?

Short Answer

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

1. What does Jameson confess to Grayson about Emily’s death?

2. What was Xander’s responsibility in the game?

Recommended Next Reads

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

• This novel is about 16 strangers who have the chance to inherit from Samuel Westing’s will if they participate in the dangerous Westing Games.
• Shared topics include games, mystery, and danger.
• Shared themes include The Danger of Secrecy and The Power of the Absent Character.
• The Westing Game on SuperSummary

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

• This novel is a coming-of-age story set in the 1960s about a young girl who grows up alone on a marsh and her experiences surrounding the mysterious disappearance of a young man.
• Shared topics include familial conflicts, socioeconomic divisions, and mystery.
• Shared themes include The Manmade Construct of Class Differences, The Danger of Secrecy, and The Power of the Absent Character.
• Where the Crawdads Sing on SuperSummary