A Night Divided by Jennifer Nielsen - Novel Study

This 29-page novel study for Jennifer A. Nielsen's A Night Divided is built for grades 4–8.

The activities take the Cold War setting seriously rather than treating it as backdrop. Readers track down the real people behind the quotations Nielsen puts at the head of every chapter, build a timeline of the Wall's twenty-eight years, and argue both sides of Mama's four-year refusal to leave.

Includes:

• Summary and noteworthy facts, including the novel's ILA-CBC Children's Choices List selection and its state award wins
• Discussion questions and themes for discussion
• Essay and short answer questions
• Book-specific tips for adults
• Story structure basics
• Vocabulary
• Literary devices, with a full answer key
• 17 creative activities, including:
  • Whose Words Are These? — track down the real people behind five of the book's chapter epigraphs, checking each against two sources
  • Who Was Watching? — chart five neighbors and officials by what they saw, what they did with it, and what it cost them
  • Twenty-Eight Years — build a timeline of the Berlin Wall from 1961 to 1989 and mark how small Gerta's four years look against it

The book itself is not included. A Night Divided is published in the United States by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc.