Stardust

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

Chapters 1-2

Reading Check

1. How old is Dunstan when he meets the faerie woman?

2. What is Wall’s local inn called?

3. What does the faerie woman ask Dunstan for in payment?

4. What is Tristran’s consolation gift for missing his first market?

5. What is Tristran’s schoolteacher’s name?

6. What does Dunstan give Tristran before he crosses the wall?

Short Answer

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

1. What is the relationship between Bridget Comfrey and Victoria Forester?

2. What are the guards supposed to do if someone crosses the wall when they’re not supposed to?

Paired Resource

“Goblin Market”

• Victorian-era narrative poem “Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti
• Considered an influential work that helped popularize the concept of faerie markets in literature
• Shares themes of Freedom and Restriction
• How have attitudes toward this type of market changed since Rossetti’s time, and how have they remained the same?
• "Goblin Market" on SuperSummary

Chapters 3-5

Reading Check

1. How many children does the 81st Lord of Stormhold have?

2. What gemstone is the Stormhold necklace made out of?

3. What does Tristran eat for his first breakfast in Faerie?

4. Who is the first Stormhold heir to die in the novel?

5. What are the lion and the unicorn fighting about?

6. What was Madame Semele’s old nickname?

7. What plant does Madame Semele use to force the witch-queen’s confession?

Short Answer

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

1. How do the Lilim sisters decide which of them goes after the star?

2. How do Tristran and Charmed escape the serewood forest?

3. How do Tristran and Yvaine become separated?

Paired Resource

“An Anciente Mappe of Fairyland : Newly Discovered and Set Forth”

• Detailed digital image of a 1918 map of Fairyland, containing a range of sights from myth, legend, fairy tale, and literature
• Shares the themes of Freedom and Restriction and Physical and Spiritual Transformation
• Consider the novel’s claim that Faerie is made up of places that have been pushed off the map of reality. What other places would have made their way there since Tristran Thorn’s time? Draw your own map of Faerie.

Chapters 6-8

Reading Check

1. What gift does the beech tree give Tristran?

2. What stone are the witch-queen’s knives made of?

3. What is the name of the witch’s inn?

4. What is the name of Captain Alberic’s lightning ship?

5. Which Shakespeare play does Tristran quote while he and Yvaine are in Fulkeston?

6. What does Tristran use to barter his passage back to Wall?

Short Answer

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

1. Why does the beech tree agree to help Tristran?

2. How does Tristran learn the inn is a trap?

3. Why does Yvaine hate Tristran for rescuing her?

Paired Resource

“Kubla Khan”

• Coleridge’s poem “Kubla Khan,” which Tristran gains fame for when reciting to a village after embarking the ship Perdita
• Shares the themes of Physical and Spiritual Transformation and Love, Infatuation, and Desire
• Why do you think the author chose to feature this poem in particular during Tristran’s adventures?
• “Kubla Khan” on SuperSummary  

“How ‘Unicorn Horns’ Became the Poison Antidote of Choice for Paranoid Royals”

• Article detailing some of the powers and folklore historically associated with unicorns
• Shares the theme of Physical and Spiritual Transformation
• Stardust is set at a time when magic and science were beginning to intersect. What are some other places in the novel that bridge the old and the new?

Chapters 9-10 and Epilogue

Reading Check

1. How is Septimus killed?

2. What flower does Madame Semele use to restore Tristran’s shape?

3. What detail has Tristran forgotten about Victoria?

4. Who comes to meet Tristran at the wall?

5. Who leads Una’s procession back to Stormhold?

6. Who does Tristran forge peace with as Lord of Stormhold?

Short Answer

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

1. Why doesn’t Madame Semele tell the witch-queen about the star?

2. What does Victoria offer Tristran on his return?

3. Why does Yvaine decide to cross the wall?

Recommended Next Reads 

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

• Another work of magical realism by Neil Gaiman that includes a distant member of Daisy’s family, the Hempstocks

“Chivalry”

• A short story by Neil Gaiman that inverts the quest story archetype in a reimagining of the quest for the holy grail

The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories by Susanna Clarke

• A collection of eight historical short stories set on the edge of England and Faerie; contains the only authorized short story set in the world of Stardust by an author other than Neil Gaiman