Nimona

65 pages • 2 hours read

Nimona

Fiction | Graphic Novel/Book | YA | Published in 2015

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

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

CHAPTERS 1-2

Reading Check

1. What does Blackheart call Nimona’s ability to shapeshift?

2. What does Nimona want to add to Blackheart’s kidnapping plan?

3. What does Blackheart insist on following despite being a villain?

4. Who do both Nimona and Blackheart want to kill?

Short Answer

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

1. What is the impact of beginning the novel in medias res?

2. How do Blackheart and Nimona differ?

3. Considering their character traits, what might Blackheart and Nimona’s partnership represent?

4. What motivates each character?

Paired Resource

“How to Fight Monsters”

This excerpt from Sherman Alexie’s novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian examines the role of social norms and expectations in stereotyping as well as defining who is accepted and who is not.
This relates to the themes Shifting Identity as Queer Symbolism and Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas.
How do both Stevenson and Alexie examine social norms, roles, and stereotypes and expose the drawbacks of conforming to rigid social and moral rules?

CHAPTERS 3-5

Reading Check

1. What do they infiltrate the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics to find?

2. Who does Goldenloin assume Nimona is?

3. Who does Nimona claim to have gotten her abilities from?

4. What does Nimona find evidence that the Institution is using?

Short Answer

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

1. What advantages does Nimona provide and what purpose might it serve in the context of deeper themes?

2. How does Nimona’s backstory help characterize her?

3. What does Nimona’s strong reaction to Blackheart’s request to study her blood imply?

4. How does Blackheart’s reaction to the Institution’s use of jaderoot complicate his role as a villain?

Paired Resource

“Names/Nombres”

In this personal essay, Julia Alvarez explores the multiplicities in her identity after immigrating to the United States from the Dominican Republic through the lens of her changing names.
This relates to the theme Shifting Identity as Queer Symbolism.
How does Alvarez’s shifting name in her personal essay function similar to Nimona’s physical shifting in the novel, and what do both motifs reveal about identity and social expectations?

CHAPTERS 6-7

Reading Check

1. What method does Blackheart use to administer his non-lethal poison?

2. What is Nimona’s preferred World Domination game token?

3. What gift does Nimona give Blackheart?

4. Where does Goldenloin ask Blackheart to meet him?

Short Answer

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

1. Is Blackheart a villain?

2. How does Nimona’s injury result in a pivotal moment in her relationship with Blackheart?

3. What does rejecting Nimona’s suggestion that he might soon rule the Institution show about Blackheart?

4. What does the Director tell Goldenloin to do and what does his reaction show about his own moral allegiances?

Paired Resource

“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”

This short story by James Thurber blurs the lines between reality and fantasy as Walter Mitty struggles to reconcile the version of himself that exists in his head with the version of himself others see.
This relates to the theme Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas.
Just as Stevenson blurs the line between hero and villain, moral and immoral, Thurber blurs the line between reality and fantasy. How might the characters’ struggles to reconcile their own perceptions of themselves with those of others explore a deeper question of whether a person’s identity is innate or shaped by social norms?

CHAPTERS 8-9

Reading Check

1. Where does Nimona take Blackheart to cheer him up after his fight with Goldenloin?

2. Who does the churro vender mistake Nimona for?

3. Nimona’s exposure to Dr. Blitzmeyer’s anomalous energy device reveals what great fear?

4. What does Ballister encourage the people to do in his speech at the tournament?

Short Answer

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

1. What happens to Nimona at the science expo and why does she have such a strong reaction afterward?

2. In what way does the science expo offer Nimona and Blackheart a chance to strengthen their friendship?

3. Why are Nimona and Blackheart present at the jousting tournament?

4. What does Blackheart accuse the Institution of doing in his speech?

Paired Resource

“Neil Gaiman ‘Click-Clack the Rattlebag’ Live from the NYPL”

This dark fantasy short story exploits the reader’s expectation of characters conforming to certain story roles to create a devastating twist.
This relates to the theme Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas.
How do both Stevenson and Gaiman rely on character roles and tropes to subvert reader expectations and provide commentary on deeper themes?

CHAPTER 10-EPILOGUE

Reading Check

1. What does Blackheart call himself when he decides to give up being a villain?

2. What word does Blackheart use to describe the director’s treatment of Nimona?

3. What does Blackheart hope Nimona sees him as, if she is indeed watching him?

Short Answer

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

1. What is Blackheart’s conundrum regarding Nimona and Goldenloin?

2. What does Nimona’s flashback reveal about those who want to “cure” her?

3. What belief does Blackheart express to Nimona about herself in relation to her rampaging dragon form? Why is it important?

Recommended Next Reads

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

A collection of fairy tales brings mother and son together, helping them navigate the complexities of bridging their first- and second-generation immigrant experiences and providing the words, symbolism, and frameworks to share deeper secrets and find acceptance.
Shared themes include Shifting Identity as Queer Symbolism and The Significance of Found Family.
Shared topics include postmodern fairytales, challenging norms, and the search for identity and acceptance.
The Magic Fish on SuperSummary

The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

Linus Baker, caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Children, expects the worst on his latest assignment, which includes reporting on the development of five orphaned children in the care of Arthus Parnassus, one of whom is the actual Antichrist. Linus soon finds that the real work, however, will involve changing his own perceptions and learning to look beyond the social labels that capture so little of a person’s true essence.
Shared themes include Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas, Shifting Identities as Queer Symbolism, and The Significance of Found Family.
Shared topics include challenging norms and labels, the search for identity and acceptance, suffering at the hands of unjust systems, and hope for acceptance and peace.
The House in the Cerulean Sea on SuperSummary

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-2

Reading Check

1. Useful (Chapter 1)

2. More Chaos (Chapter 2)

3. Rules (Chapter 2)

4. Goldenloin (Chapter 2)

Short Answer

1. In addition to creating immediacy in the narrative’s pacing, beginning without backstory encourages further reading to determine what is motivating the characters to plan acts of villainy. (Chapter 1)

2. Nimona and Blackheart are foils. Though they share the same stated goals, they have different motivations. Nimona is young, impulsive, creative, and exuberant, whereas Blackheart is older, meticulous, analytical, and moody. (Chapters 1-2)

3. Together, the two represent a tenuous union between chaos and order, id and ego, or between head and heart. Blackheart is on the side of order, thinking, and planning, and Nimona is on the side of chaos, emotion, and impulsivity. (Chapter 2)

4. Nimona seems motivated by anger at the injustices the system represents, whereas Blackheart directly states that his aim is to prove a point. Their schemes are an emotional endeavor for Nimona and an intellectual one for Blackheart. (Chapter 2)

CHAPTERS 3-5

Reading Check

1. Science Things (Chapter 3)

2. Blackheart’s Squire (Chapter 3)

3. A Witch (Chapter 4)

4. Jaderoot (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Not only does she have the element of surprise as a shapeshifter, but her default appearance as a young girl means that people underestimate her and show their weaknesses. This relates to the theme of Ambivalent Morality and Moral Dilemmas as knights often stop themselves from delivering a blow to her child-like forms while throwing themselves headlong at her animal forms. This raises deeper questions regarding implicit bias and why some are deemed innocent and worthy of protection while others are judged as dangerous and deserving of death. (Chapter 4)

2. Nimona chose her dragon form to help her village, but they rejected her and abandoned her, which makes Nimona’s anger, guardedness, and deflections seem like survival strategies. (Chapter 4)

3. She becomes angry with him and though she will not speak about what happened, she lets him know that she is no one’s lab rat. This suggests that people may have experimented on her in the past. (Chapter 5)

4. Unlike the Institution—which is ignoring its own rules to test a deadly substance that might poison the crops and kill citizens—Blackheart shows concern for the possible effects on the citizens. If a hero’s role is to protect the innocent and the villain’s role is to pursue nefarious schemes at all costs, their reactions to the jaderoot experiments show a role reversal. (Chapter 5)

CHAPTERS 6-7

Reading Check

1. Apples (Chapter 6)

2. The Scottie Dog (Chapter 6)

3. A crown (Chapter 7)

4. The Antlered Snake (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. The choice to poison but not kill people with infected apples shows that Blackheart embraces his villain role—perhaps ironically—as he uses a classic fairy-tale method to administer the poison. He acts from a place of moral outrage at the Institution’s duplicity and believes he is morally superior. His actions are more about proving his point that the Institution is not the hero it claims to be than protecting people. Though his poison is non-lethal, it will cause suffering, which shows he is willing to use people as pawns. (Chapter 6)

2. Not only do his concern and care for her injury go beyond his role as “boss” and reflect a closer relationship, but they also force Blackheart to reassess his goals and the morality of endangering her. In addition, the downtime allows them to interact recreationally, helping them to become a more equal partnership. (Chapter 6)

3. He is not motivated by advancing his own power, but by a belief in truth and justice, though his actions sometimes run counter to his guiding principles. (Chapter 7)

4. She tells him to get rid of Nimona by any means necessary, implying that her preference would be to kill Nimona. Goldenloin believes himself to be a hero and does not want to kill Nimona. He also feels remorse for what happened between him and Blackheart and warns Blackheart about what the director expects. Goldenloin is stuck in his role, and this leads him to make morally ambivalent choices as he tries to reconcile his conflicting loyalties. (Chapter 7)

CHAPTERS 8-9

Reading Check

1. A Science Expo (Chapter 8)

2. Blackheart’s Son (Chapter 8)

3. Being alone/vulnerable (Chapter 8)

4. Rebel (Chapter 9)

Short Answer

1. After Nimona is exposed to the anomalous energy device Dr. Blitzmeyer invented, she is stuck as a cat. This vulnerability triggers a deep fear that she is losing herself, or that the Institution could weaponize the device and trap her in one form. (Chapter 8)

2. The visit to the expo is a kind of gift from Nimona, which shows a depth of caring that goes beyond their boss/employee relationship. When Nimona is exposed to the anomalous energy and stuck as a cat, Blackheart gets a chance to reciprocate by comforting and soothing her through a vulnerable moment. (Chapter 8)

3. They are looking for Goldenloin, but also plan to use a vender to spread their poison publicly and cause a panic. In the panic, they hope to make a rousing speech against the Institution, blame the sickness and panic on them, and incite a rebellion. (Chapter 9)

4. Blackheart exposes the Institution’s use of jaderoot, blames them for the sickened tournament goers, and then characterizes them as warmongers who steal people’s children and turn them into expendable soldiers. (Chapter 9)

CHAPTER 10-EPILOGUE

Reading Check

1. A liar and murderer (Chapter 10)

2. Barbaric (Chapter 10)

3. A friend (Epilogue)

Short Answer

1. He loves them both, they both will attempt to kill each other, and Blackheart is the only one who might be able to stop them. (Chapter 11)

2. Not only are cures involving imprisonment, non-consensual experimentation, and abuse unhelpful in terms of understanding Nimona and helping her to figure herself out, the idea that her condition requires a cure is predicated on a particular set of norms and values that are an arbitrary, if widely accepted, measure of “normal.” (Chapter 11)

3. Though Nimona considers the dragon form her stronger half, Blackheart assures her it is her core thinking, feeling, and caring self represented through her younger child’s form that is strongest. This assertion shows that he sees beyond her shapeshifting abilities to who she really is and that he does not view her as a monster like everyone else. (Chapter 11)