Harris and Me: A Summer Remembered

Multiple Choice and Long Answer questions create ideal opportunities for whole-text review, unit exams, or summative assessments.

Multiple Choice

1. How does Harris’s decision to alert Knute of the fever tick, thereby beginning a chain of events that leads to his own injury, demonstrate Harris’s character?

A) It shows that he acts rashly without concern for the wellbeing of others.

B) It shows that he puts the care of other creatures before his own safety.

C) It shows that he thinks he knows more about nature than he really does.

D) It shows that he’s more concerned with showing off than working hard.

2. How does the protagonist feel when Knute carries him to the truck at the end of the long night spent in town?

A) Resentful

B) Accepted

C) Frightened

D) Numb

3. What is food’s symbolic importance in Harris and Me?

A) It represents satisfying times spent with loved ones.

B) Its scarcity reminds the reader of struggles and hardships.

C) It stands for the silent, sacred bond of family.

D) It offers an outlet for endless creativity and wonder.

4. In what way does Knute’s silence come to trouble the protagonist?

A) It makes him worry that Knute’s loneliness is worsening.

B) It makes him realize that he has disappointed Knute by lying.

C) It puzzles him and makes Knute seem unfriendly.

D) It reminds him of the way his own father treated him.

5. Which of the following best states the central message of Harris and Me?

A) Friends you know for a short while can make lasting impacts on your life.

B) Growing up on a farm is more challenging than living in the city.

C) Animals can teach you acceptance as much as humans can.

D) Life after World War II was vastly different from present-day life.

6. Why is the protagonist hesitant when he first arrives at the farm?

A) He has heard rumors that the Larson family is strange.

B) He does not want the Larsons to know the truth about him.

C) He is Growing Up and cannot relate to Harris.

D) He has never experienced Home, Family, and Acceptance.

7. What is the defining moment that indicates the protagonist has become part of the Larson family?

A) He sees that Louie has created a miniature of him.

B) He goes to visit town with the family.

C) He helps the family separate milk and mow the fields.

D) He is welcomed with open arms upon his arrival.

8. What do Harris and the protagonist have most in common?

A) Their love of Gene Autry movies

B) Their hatred of farm work

C) Their love of horseplay

D) Their hatred of rules

9. What does the family’s decision to keep Lynx say about them?

A) It shows that they are big risk-takers.

B) It shows that they have a love for exotic animals.

C) It shows that they lack regard for their own safety.

D) It shows that they are willing to accept everyone.

10. Why does the protagonist lie about the broken gun?

A) Harris offers to do his farm work for the next day.

B) The protagonist wants to protect Harris.

C) Harris blackmails the protagonist into lying for him.

D) The protagonist feels like it was truly his own fault.

Long Answer

Compose a response of 2-3 sentences, incorporating text details to support your response.

1. What are the major differences and similarities between Harris and the protagonist? How do these factors affect their relationship and the events that unfold when they are together? How do their differences cause conflict?

2. How does each chapter serve as a lesson that the protagonist learns, and what are three specific examples of this?

3. How do the rich descriptions of the setting contribute to the novel’s sense of realism and its portrayal of its characters?