73 pages • 2 hours read
John ConnollyThe Book of Lost Things
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
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 1-6
Reading Check
1. What is the time period of the novel?
2. Where do David and his father move following the death of David’s mother?
3. What is David’s half-brother named?
4. What name is written inside the books in David’s new room?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Why does David’s father take him to see Dr. Moberly?
2. What does David notice about the ivy on the outer wall of the country house, and what could this imply?
3. How is the sunken garden significant?
4. What do books mean to David?
Paired Resource
“How Stories Connect and Persuade Us: Unleashing the Brain Power of Narrative”
- NPR’s article examines how stories affect us.
- The information in this resource connects to the theme Stories as a Means of Transportation.
- What does this article’s content suggest about the ways in which stories connect David and his mother?
“5 Ways to Cope When a Loved One Dies (for Teens)”
- Nemours Teens Health presents some strategies for walking through grief.
- The information in this article connects to the theme Accepting the Reality of Death.
- Use the list in the article to consider the ways in which David is reacting to his mother’s death. What circumstances make his grieving process particularly challenging?
CHAPTERS 7-14
Reading Check
1. Whom does David first meet in the new world?
2. Who is the leader of the Loups?
3. What does David do to cross the canyon?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How do David and the Woodsman escape the wolves?
2. What elements of fairy tales does the story include? How do these fairy tale elements compare to what one might expect from familiar stories?
3. How is the Crooked Man affecting David?
4. Why are the dwarves afraid of Snow White?
CHAPTERS 15-21
Reading Check
1. What is the deer-girl?
2. Where does Roland promise to take David if David helps him?
3. What does the Crooked Man show David that bothers him?
4. What keeps Roland and David in the village longer than they had planned?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does David escape from the huntress?
2. What does David begin to realize about stories he used to like? What does this reveal about him?
3. How has David begun to shift his routines?
Paired Resource
“3 Young People on Why Reclaiming Their Childhood Hobbies Is Healing”
- Teen Vogue highlights young people and the decision to return to aspects of childhood.
- The information in this feature connects to the theme The Benefits and Losses of Growing Up.
- Based on what the author reveals about him, what might David choose to reclaim from his childhood? In what ways might that process help him to heal?
CHAPTERS 22-28
Reading Check
1. Why does David feel blame for the Beast?
2. What does the Crooked Man want David to tell him?
3. What covers the castle?
4. Who is the king?
5. What is in the Book of Lost Things?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How is the Crooked Man portrayed?
2. What leads to David finally accepting his mother is really dead?
3. Why does David fight the thieves he meets? What does this reveal about him?
4. Why has the Crooked Man been pursuing David? How does David realize the truth?
Paired Resource
“Losing a Parent: 8 Tips for Grieving”
- Everyday Health explores the loss of a parent and ideas to help someone grieving such a loss.
- The information in this resource connects to the theme Accepting the Reality of Death.
- What advice in this article does David try? What advice might your offer to him if you were his friend?
CHAPTERS 29-33
Reading Check
1. When asked again his half-brother’s name, what does David say?
2. What causes the death of the Loups?
3. When he crawls back through the tree, where does David wake up?
Short Answer
Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What changes does his family notice about David?
2. How is David’s second trip through the sunken garden different from his first?
Recommended Next Reads
The Land of Lost Things by John Connelly
- In this sequel to The Book of Lost Things, Phoebe lies in a coma, and her mother reads her fairy tales. Another land filled with magic beckons her.
- Shared themes include The Benefits and Losses of Growing Up, Accepting the Reality of Death, and Stories as a Means of Transportation.
- Shared topics include magic, growing up, trauma, other worlds, family, and hope.
The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
- Morgan explores her Indigenous history when she and her foster brother find a portal to another land in the attic of her eighth foster home.
- Shared themes include The Benefits and Losses of Growing Up, Accepting the Reality of Death, and Stories as a Means of Transportation.
- Shared topics include family, the past, anger, magic, guides, heroism, different lands, and quests.
- The Barren Grounds on SuperSummary
Reading Questions Answer Key
CHAPTERS 1-6
Reading Check
1. World War II (sometime between 1939 and 1945) (Chapter 1)
2. David and his father move out of London to the country to live with Rose and the new baby. (Chapter 3)
3. Georgie (Chapters 3-4)
4. Jonathan Tulvey (Chapter 4)
Short Answer
1. David continues to have periods during which he blacks out, which lead to strange memories. When he grows concerned for David, his father takes him to the psychiatrist, Dr. Moberly. (Chapter 2)
2. The ivy is more concentrated near David’s window, even appearing to be reaching toward his window instead of spreading out as ivy usually does. This anomaly indicates the ivy has some intention concerning David and that nature is drawn toward David. (Chapter 5)
3. David sees the sunken garden from his bedroom window where he reads. It is also where he enters Elsewhere. (Chapters 4-6)
4. Books have been important to David throughout his life as a connection to his mother. She read to him, and they both enjoyed that time together. Now that she has died, David reaches for reading as a connection to her. (Chapters 1-6)
CHAPTERS 7-14
Reading Check
1. The Woodsman (Chapter 7)
2. Leroi (Chapter 9)
3. David solves a riddle to decide which is the safe bridge. (Chapter 12)
Short Answer
1. David and the Woodsman run to the cabin. When the wolves trap them, the ivy helps them by detaining the wolves until they can get inside. (Chapters 7-8)
2. The novel includes multiple fairy tales, but with changes. For example, the Woodsman tells David stories like “Hansel and Gretel” and “Little Red Riding Hood,” both with an additional chapter included. David also encounters Snow White, the Seven Dwarves, and trolls. Magic, heroes, villains, quests, and mysterious settings abound in Elsewhere, but each element displays darker characteristics than traditional fairy tales. (Chapters 7-14)
3. The Crooked Man is following David, taking his hidden clothes. He is entering David’s dreams as well; for example, David dreams of the Crooked Man looking at his half-brother (foreshadowing the Crooked Man’s goal). (Chapters 7-14)
4. In this version, the dwarves, not the queen, poisoned Snow White; they live in fear since being told that if any harm comes to her in the future, they would be blamed. (Chapter 14)
CHAPTERS 15-21
Reading Check
1. The deer-girl is a character with the body of a deer and a human girl’s head who is murdered by the huntress. (Chapter 15)
2. To the king (Chapter 18)
3. An image of his family living happily, as though they have forgotten him (Chapter 18)
4. A blizzard (Chapter 20)
Short Answer
1. David fools the huntress, convincing her to want to become a Centaur and prompting her to teach him how to use her tools. He then uses the blade to free himself and runs. (Chapters 16-17)
2. David realizes stories he used to enjoy contain no mercy and that they are not always realistic. His ability to analyze and recognize this reveals reflection and a growing maturity. (Chapter 19)
3. David trades the routines he created in hopes they would save his mother for routines that are more practical and helpful in the present, as the Woodsman suggested. (Chapter 19)
CHAPTERS 22-28
Reading Check
1. Since David feels a connection to the Beast, he fears that he created her. (Chapter 22)
2. The name of his half-brother (Chapter 22)
3. Huge, terrible thorns (Chapter 24)
4. Jonathan Tulvey (Chapter 28)
5. Journal entries and relics from David’s world that Jonathan saved (Chapter 28)
Short Answer
1. The Crooked Man is incredibly selfish, acquiring continued life and striving for immortality through the death of young children. He did so with Jonathan’s sister Anna and is attempting the same through David’s half-brother Georgie. He lies and manipulates people to his own end. (Chapters 22-28)
2. David follows his mother’s voice and thinks he sees her, but she changes into a frightening version of Rose. She attacks David and falls onto a thorn, dying. As she dies, she becomes an elderly woman. After chasing his mother for so long, David’s realization that the voice and figure was not his mother helps David accept her death as real. (Chapters 25-26)
3. David fights the thieves when they try to steal Scylla. In protecting his companion, David demonstrates compassion and loyalty, saving his friend and feeling remorse for the thieves’ deaths. (Chapter 26)
4. The Crooked Man has been pursuing David to get him to say Georgie’s name; at that point, the Crooked Man’s magic will trap David as king and take Georgie’s life, giving the rest of his years to the Crooked Man to live. David discovers the truth when he finds Anna, the king’s sister who met this fate, and she reveals the Crooked Man’s intentions. (Chapter 28)
CHAPTERS 29-33
Reading Check
1. “Brother” (Chapter 31)
2. Since the Loups were a nightmare of the king’s, they die when he dies. (Chapter 31)
3. In a hospital (Chapter 32)
Short Answer
1. David’s family notices that he is more thoughtful and mature, seeking to protect his brother and showing acceptance of Rose he did not before. (Chapters 29-33)
2. This time, David knows where the sunken garden leads. When he arrives, he sees a land filled with peace now that the creatures who had been haunting it have gone. (Chapter 33)
