Moon of the Crusted Snow

Part 1, Chapters 1-7

Reading Check

1. The antennas on an old TV (Chapter 2)

2. Nicole’s cousin Tammy (Chapter 4)

3. Moose stew (Chapter 7)

Short Answer

1. Evan intends to share meat with others—his parents, his siblings, his in-laws, and anyone whose supplies might run out before the winter’s end. It is the community way. (Chapter 1)

2. Dan dreamed of a fire in a field beyond a hill. He saw a bunch of people, including Evan and some of his friends, just looking at the fire. Everyone was dressed to hunt, but they weren’t wearing orange. They looked thin and hungry. Dan realized the fire was an attempt to draw out the moose. He looked at Evan and saw that he was scared. (Chapter 3)

3. A 16-year-old boy got drunk and stabbed his grandmother in a minor quarrel. She later died, and the boy then took his own life. (Chapter 6)

Part 1, Chapters 8-15

Reading Check

1. Candace, Isaiah’s mother (Chapter 8)

2. Two cans of baked beans (Chapter 9)

3. Her children (Chapter 11)

4. Kevin Birch and Nick Jones (Chapter 12)

5. She was homesick. (Chapter 14)

Short Answer

1. The Anishinaabe perform the ritual to cleanse the spirit. They begin meetings that way out of respect for the old ways that Europeans tried to eradicate. (Chapter 8)

2. Terry is frustrated because all they can do is send out a flier telling people to be patient. He worries that it should not state that a food delivery will come the next week because they haven’t heard from anyone on the outside to confirm. They have no information, and how can he lead the community without knowing anything? (Chapter 10)

3. Gibson, where they were attending school, was utter chaos—no power or other services and no food. People were getting violent. (Chapter 12)

4. They were alarmed when they saw someone break the store window. There was glass and blood everywhere, and people started fighting. They say they kept it to themselves when they returned to school because they didn’t want to freak everybody out. (Chapter 13)

5. Dan and Patricia bring the council members a meal to thank them for their work in looking after the community’s needs during the crisis. (Chapter 15)

Part 1, Chapters 16-21

Reading Check

1. In the health center (Chapter 16)

2. Cans of food (Chapter 18)

3. He might be useful. (Chapter 19)

Short Answer

1. They are suspicious. He is very large, and his size is intimidating. He says he’s looking for a safe place to stay and that he followed Kevin and Nick’s snowmobile tracks there. Few white people just “stop by” the reservation—visitors typically have a reason for being there. (Chapter 16)

2. The heckler doesn’t think it’s fair to give free food to people who didn’t work for it after he spent the summer fishing and the fall hunting to provide for his family. (Chapter 17)

3. There was still shame associated with the Ojibwe language because white religious people indoctrinated the Native children they abducted and took to their schools. (Chapter 20)

4. Jenna and Tara, who were at Cam’s party, have been found dead in a ditch. (Chapter 21)

Part 2, Chapters 22-26

Reading Check

1. The ground is frozen. (Chapter 22)

2. Checking snares (Chapter 23)

3. A trickster (Chapter 25)

Short Answer

1.  They will rely on plants from the woods. Aileen has been teaching Nicole the old ways of caring for the sick and injured. (Chapter 22)

2. She despises him. Her husband has become his lapdog, and she doesn’t like the way he looks at her. He tells the other refugees that he has a plan for food after the cache runs out, but he won’t tell them what it is. He seems to be getting even bigger. (Chapter 23)

3. The geese are singing and dancing. They’re having a party before leaving for the winter and asking the spirits for a safe journey. (Chapter 25)

4. There is only one box of chili left in the food stores, which doesn’t match the inventory Terry is relying on. He tells Evan, Isaiah, and Tyler to distribute canned ham instead, even though that’s what they handed out the week before. (Chapter 26)

Part 2, Chapters 27-Epilogue

Reading Check

1. A tepee (Chapter 27)

2. Building houses with blocks (Chapter 28)

3. Meghan (Chapter 30)

Short Answer

1. After rearranging the bodies to make more room for Aileen, Evan counts them and realizes that one is missing. He says Scott must have taken the body to eat. (Chapter 29)

2. Although they had come to loathe the man, they pity him in death. Still, they leave his body in the snow, where it will remain frozen until the spring thaw, when crows and wolves will consume it. (Chapter 31)