A Long Walk To Water Text-Based Discussion Questions

Pre-Reading:

1. What do you notice about how the text is laid out?

2. What do you notice about the type? The dates? The titles? Etc.

3. Why do you think the author made these choices?

4. Look closely at the map at the beginning of the book. What do you notice? What do you

wonder?

5. Salva’s route goes from Loun-Ariik to Kakuma. What environments does he travel

through?

Chapter 1:

1. Before his village was attacked, Salva was daydreaming about his life at home. What are

three things we learned about him in this passage?

2. Why are North Sudan and South Sudan fighting?

3. Why did only the boys go to school?

Chapter 2:

1. What does Nya’s experience with the thorn tell us about her? What is a personality trait

you could use to describe her, based on her reaction?

2. How does Linda Sue Park describe the airplane Salva sees? What does this tell us about

the plane? What literary device is this?

3. How is Salva feeling when he realizes the men with the guns are the rebels? Explain.

4. What does Salva’s choice to step forward on p. 11 tell you about his character? Explain.

5. Reread this sentence about a Rebel soldier:

“A soldier hit him in the face with the butt of a gun.”

If the Rebels are supposed to be the “good guys,” why are they being so harsh?

6. Why does Salva keep repeating the words, “where is my family” throughout the chapter?

7. Why does everyone leave Salva behind at the end of the chapter?

Chapter 3:

1. What was the long history between the Nuer and the Dinka tribes?

2. How does Salva identify the old woman as being from the Dinka tribe?

3. What does Salva mean when he says “everything was upside down?”

4. What was the old woman's reasoning for not bringing Salva along with her?

5. How does Salva feel when he sees the group of people walking towards the house?

Chapter 4:

1. Describe a typical day in Nya’s life.

2. Why did the men consider leaving Salva behind?

3. In the end, why did they let him join them?

4. Describe a typical day in Salva’s new life.

Chapter 5:

1. If the lake has more water than the pond, why can’t Nya’s family just stay there yearround?

2. How is Nya’s water collection different at the lake camp?

3. Infer what happened with the bees.

4. How did Salva know that Marial was not from his village?

5. How much time has now passed since Salva started running?

Chapter 6:

1. What do we now know about Salva’s and Nya’s tribes? What inferences can we make

based on this information?

2. What family member does Salva finally find?

3. Re-read this quote.

“But it did not take long for Salva to regret his haste in eating [the topi]. After so

many weeks of near starvation, his stomach rebelled mightily.”

Explain what was happening here.

4. Who is Marial? What happens to him in the Atuot region? What clues led you to this

inference?

If you answer most of these answers correctly i will give you brainliest i need the answers before 3:30 pm today plz help