After The First Death

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

PART 1

Reading Check

1. When one of Ben’s classmates sets off fireworks on Thanksgiving, why do they make him ill?

2. What town is Ben from?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Ben’s discussion with his mother hint at how Ben’s character will develop over the course of the novel?

Paired Resource

“Unhappily Ever After”

• This Los Angeles Times article is an interview with Cormier that explores how his body of work largely revolves around themes of evil and violence. 
• Cormier mentions that his early observations of death, and his realization that Death Doesn’t Discriminate, influenced his writing.
• Despite the unhappy endings of most of his books, Cormier denies being a pessimist. What do you think of his logic in this interview as to why he denies that label?

PART 2

Reading Check

1. How old, approximately, is Miro Shantas?

2. How does Artkin sedate the kids on the bus?

Short Answer

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

1. What is Artkin’s original plan for hijacking the bus?

PART 3

Reading Check

1. What is it about the letter that Ben’s father receives that hints the hijacking has to do with secret work at Inner Delta?

2. In Part 3, Ben speaks directly to the reader. What is the name of this literary device?

Short Answer

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

1. What notable event happened to Ben just before the bus hijacking? What was his emotional reaction?

Paired Resource

“A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London”

• This is the poem by iconic Welsh poet Dylan Thomas from which the novel takes its title. 
• As the poem revolves around the death of a child, it shares the theme Death Doesn’t Discriminate.
• What other similarities in tone, theme, and content does this poem share with the early parts of After the First Death?

PART 4

Reading Check

1. As police and armed forces surround the bus, why does Artkin warn Miro to be especially cautious?

2. What does Artkin do with the dead child to demonstrate that life is not precious to the hijackers?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does Kate suspect she will not make it out of the hijacking incident alive?

PART 5

Reading Check

1. What time does Ben’s father finally arrive at Castle?

2. What are the hijackers’ three demands?

Short Answer

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

1. Ben notices a change in his father when he visits. What is the nature of this change, and why does it make Ben feel guilty?

PART 6

Reading Check

1. What does Artkin supply for kids who need to use the bathroom on the bus?

2. What does Artkin tell Miro they will need to do unless their demands are met by 9 o’clock the next morning?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Kate discover she has an extra key to the bus?

Paired Resource

“You Can and Can’t Go Home Again”

• From The New York Times’s digital archive, this is an original 1979 review of After the First Death, included in a round-up of several recently published books.
• The reviewer calls attention to the multiple points of view, thus connecting to the theme of There Are Two Sides to Every Confrontation.
• This review says the novel is an “antidote to the mindless Happy Ending school of literature.” What do you think the reviewer means by that?

PART 7

Reading Check

1. Part 7 marks a turn in the narrative. Whose perspective now reveals story events?

2. What does General Markhand find near Ben’s typewriter that hints at the effects of Ben’s trauma?

Short Answer

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

1. How do General Markhand and Ben’s emotions mirror one another in Part 7?

PART 8

Reading Check

1. Why does Miro stare at Kate?

2. What does Artkin ask to see as proof that the Americans captured one of his leaders behind the operation?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does Cormier characterize Raymond more than other children on the bus?

PART 9

Reading Check

1. In a flashback, how does the General realize that Ben is being tortured by Artkin?

2. How does the General determine that Ben is headed to Brimmler’s Bridge?

Short Answer

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

1. The General views Ben as both a son and operative. How is this demonstrated? What does it say about the General’s character?

PART 10

Reading Check

1. In what character does Miro see a version of himself?

2. At what time do the Americans launch their attack on the hijackers?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does the idea that Artkin is Miro’s father break a part of Miro?

Paired Resource

“Dead Bodies in Suburbia”

• In this article from The Guardian, Robert Cormier discusses why teenage readers are so “demanding.”
• Cormier explains that dark subject matter and themes such as Death Doesn’t Discriminate made publishers initially less than eager to publish his books.
• Consider Cormier’s comment that those who want his books banned have never read them. What might this reveal about Cormier’s view of censorship?

PART 11

Reading Check

1. After Ben’s suicide, how does he reemerge as a character?

2. Why does Ben think he was brought back?

Short Answer

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

1. It is revealed that the General lied to Ben about a certain element of the Americans’ attack. What is the element, and why did he lie?

PART 12

Reading Check

1. When Miro makes it to the highway during his escape, how does he secure a vehicle?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Kate’s death inadvertently lead to Miro’s survival and escape?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier

• Published in 1974, The Chocolate War is a classic YA novel that about a non-conformist fighting the mob mentality of his all-boys Catholic high school.
• Shared themes include Beliefs Have Power.
• Like After the First Death, The Chocolate War deals with dark subject matter (depression, corruption, and conformity).
• The Chocolate War on SuperSummary

I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier

• I Am the Cheese is the follow-up to The Chocolate War. It deals with a boy’s search for truth as he attempts to find his father and uncover the secrets of his past.
• Shared themes include There Are Two Sides to Every Confrontation.
• Protagonist Adam deals with an inner struggle as a result of his complicated past, much like Ben in After the First Death. Both books include protagonists whose personal experiences create internal conflict.
• I Am the Cheese on SuperSummary