Dreamland Burning

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

Part 1, Sections 1-5

Reading Check

1. Why is Rowan walking to the District Attorney’s office?

2. What is found near the servants’ quarters in Rowan’s backyard?

3. Where does Will confront an African American male?

4. What clues do Rowan and James find in Rowan’s backyard?

Short Answer

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

1. How does the encounter between Will and Clarence relate to the novel’s theme of Racialized Violence and Intersections of Privilege?

2. How does Rowan feel about being Black?

Paired Resources

“The United States Prohibition of Alcohol”

• This article outlines the history of Prohibition and the resulting consequences of Prohibition for America’s criminal activity.
• What events led up to Prohibition? When did Prohibition begin and end? What did Prohibition entail? Who were the bootleggers? What were some of the criminal consequences of Prohibition? How does Prohibition relate to the novel’s theme of The Telling of History?

“The Speakeasies of the 1920s”

• This article describes what a speakeasy is and how these establishments flourished under Prohibition.
• What is a speakeasy? Why were speakeasies around in 1921?

Part 1, Sections 6-12

Reading Check

1. Why is Will’s mother wealthy?

2. What is Will’s punishment for drinking at the speakeasy and breaking his wrist?

3. Why does the officer appear to be displeased to see Rowan’s family?

4. What is Greenwood, and why is Will surprised by it?

5. What did Rowan take from the crime scene in her backyard, and what clue does she find with it?

6. Who is Vernon Fish, and how does Will feel about him?

Short Answer

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

1. Why is it unusual that Stan tells Will not to tell his mother about the sale of the Victrola?

2. What racial tensions have arisen in the novel up to this point?

Paired Resources

“Ku Klux Klan”

• This article provides a history of the Ku Klux Klan.
• Who were the targets of the Ku Klux Klan? How does this relate to the novel’s themes of Intersections of Privilege, Racialized Violence, and The Telling of History?

“‘Ku Klux Kiddies’: The KKK’s Little-Known Youth Movement”

• This article provides a brief history of the “Ku Klux Kiddies,” a group that began with 10 children “baptized” into the Ku Klux Klan by their parents.
• What role did women and children play in the Ku Klux Klan? How does this article relate to the novel’s themes of Racialized Violence and The Telling of History?

Part 1, Sections 13-21

Reading Check

1. To whom does Will attempt to make a sale in his father’s Victrola shop?

2. What falls out of the wallet when Rowan hands it to Geneva?

3. What is in the package that Vernon tells Will to open?

4. What does Vernon reveal the notches on his gun are for?

Short Answer

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

1. Is Stan sympathetic to his Black customers, or is he just trying to make a sale? Use evidence to support your thinking.

2. Who is Clarence revealed to be in relation to Addie? How does Addie respond to Clarence’s death?

Part 2, Sections 1-6

Reading Check

1. What is Dick Rowland accused of doing, and why is Will doubtful of Dick’s involvement?

2.  What happens to Arvin?

3. What does Kathryn offer to Angelina and her family?

4. What do Rowan and James discover about Stanley and William?

5. Why does Joseph come to the shop on the night of the riot?

Short Answer

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

1. What are Clete and Vernon likely to do, and why have they asked Will to help them?

2. Why were Osage women who acquired their wealth from oil often married to white men? Why did this put them in danger?

Paired Resource

“In the 1920s, a Community Conspired to Kill Native Americans for Their Oil Money”

• The article details one instance of a family being murdered to increase the wealth of white businessmen and the subsequent FBI investigation.
• What did the author of Killers of the Flower Moon discover about lawlessness in the 1920s? How was the community involved in the murders of Osage people at the time? How does this article relate to the novel’s themes of Racialized Violence and The Telling of History?

Part 2, Sections 7-12

Reading Check

1. How does Will escape Vernon and Clete?

2. Who is Raymond Fisher, and what is unusual about his gun?

3. How does Will circumvent most of the white rioters?

4. What does Joe reveal about his grandmother?

5. What new evidence has Geneva found at the crime scene?

Short Answer

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

1. Why is Rowan cautious about testifying against the man who hurt Arvin?

2. Why does Will decide to help the people of Greenwood?

Part 2, Sections 13-17

Reading Check

1. Why do the Goodhopes need a place to stay?

2. Why is Will concerned for the safety of Joseph and Ruby?

3. What does Opal give Rowan?

4. Who is buried under Rowan’s back porch, and who was the murderer?

5. Why does Rowan go to the courthouse?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does Ruby leave a peach pie for Kathryn every year on June 1?

2. Why does Opal warn Rowan that the message on the Dictaphone is a long testament of how difficult and complicated the world could be?

Recommended Next Reads

This Is My America by Kim Johnson

• In this novel, a 17-year-old girl writes to Innocence X to help her father, a Black man who has been wrongly convicted of a crime.
• Shared topics include racism, injustice, and criminal investigation.
• Shared themes include Racialized Violence and The Telling of History.
• This Is My America on SuperSummary

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

• This novel is about a 16-year-old Black girl who witnesses a white police office kill her friend.
• Shared topics include racism, injustice, and privilege.
• Shared themes include Intersections of Privilege and Racialized Violence.
• The Hate U Give on SuperSummary