Monday's Not Coming

Chapters 1-3, 4-5, and 6-8

Reading Check

1. With her grandmother (Chapter 2)

2. Breadcrumbs (Chapter 2)

3. The library (Chapter 4)

4. Land given to freed slaves (Chapter 4)

5. Red (Chapter 5)

6. Ms. Valente (Chapter 6)

7. Monday’s older sister (Chapter 8)

Short Answer

1. Monday did not write her back all summer. Since they are best friends, that is strange. Also, Monday is always early to school, and she is not at school. In fact, she has not even registered for classes. (Chapters 2-8)

2. Claudia is isolated and lonely. She felt Monday was her only friend, so with her not there, she navigates the new year alone. People bully her. She avoids lunch at times. She also struggles with her schoolwork, which Monday used to help her with. (Chapters 1-8)

Chapters 9-11, 12-16, and 17-20

Reading Check

1. Monday’s younger brother (Chapter 9)

2. Braiding hair (Chapter 9)

3. Banneker (Chapter 10)

4. Michael (Chapter 11)

5. Yellow (Chapter 13)

6. Talk with Monday’s father (Chapter 16)

7. Claudia has dyslexia. (Chapter 18)

8. Pink (Chapter 19)

Short Answer

1. Claudia connects dance to shadows, to rain clouds, and to rocks underwater, “every movement casting a ripple behind the next.” (Chapter 15)

2. Claudia sees bruises on Monday’s back. Also, Monday was afraid of her mother. One day, Monday comes to school in dirty clothes and smelling like urine. (Chapters 9-20)

Chapters 21-23, 24-26, and 27-30

Reading Check

1. Her tutor is his grandmother. (Chapter 21)

2. The babies her mom has lost (Chapter 22)

3. Monday (Chapter 23)

4. The church’s soup kitchen (Chapter 26)

5. Claudia’s mom (Chapter 28)

Short Answer

1. Claudia asks about August, since she has not seen him. Monday snaps that he is not her brother and Claudia did not have a brother, which is a sensitive comment due to Ma’s miscarriages. (Chapter 25)

2. April seems scared, hands shaking and hurrying Tuesday out. Tuesday seems very thin and unwashed. (Chapter 29)

Chapters 31-34, 35-38, and 39-43

Reading Check

1. Michael (Chapter 34)

2. Monday’s father has not seen any of his kids in a while. (Chapter 35)

3. Gold (Chapter 37)

4. Megan from dance (Chapter 38)

5. Painting nails (Chapter 38)

Short Answer

1. She hides under the bed, then in the shower. Finally, she jumps out the window, landing on the garbage cans, like Monday had told her she used to do. (Chapter 43)

2. Claudia is missing for a short time, and her parents are looking for her and asking others to look for her. Monday, on the other hand, has been missing for a long time before people besides Claudia look hard for her. Claudia notices these differences. (Chapters 31-43)

Chapters 44-46, 47-50, and 51-56

Reading Check

1. Green (Chapter 44)

2. In the freezer in her home (Chapter 47)

3. August (Chapters 47-50)

4. White (Chapter 54)

5. Unrepentant, showing no remorse (Chapter 56)

Short Answer

1. Monday thought the government tracked what books people checked out. She repeatedly checked out a book about children being abused, and Claudia knew she was hoping people would notice and help her. (Chapter 46)

2. She has been dissociating. She learns she is 16, but she thought she was 14. She has been unable to face her best friend’s death for years. (Chapter 48)

3. People who did not take her disappearance seriously come to the funeral. People who were bullying her attended the funeral and cried. When she needed them to help her while she was alive, these same people did not. (Chapters 44-56)