The Hawthorne Legacy

85 pages • 2 hours read

The Hawthorne Legacy

Jennifer Lynn BarnesFiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2021

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Introduction

Before Reading

During Reading

After Reading

During Reading

Reading Questions & Paired Texts

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

CHAPTERS 1-10

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Reading Check

1. How many nights is Avery allowed to spend away from Hawthorne House?

2. Which Hawthorne brother is working with Thea and Bex to try to find Toby?

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Short Answer

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

1. Describe Avery’s relationship with Ricky Grambs.

2. What happens in the Blake poem “A Poison Tree”?

CHAPTERS 11-20

Reading Check

1. What secret did Toby discover when he was 16?

2. What do Avery, Xander, and Jameson compare two versions of to track how the document has changed?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Avery discover that Toby has left invisible ink messages on his walls?

2. In Chapter 18, how and where does Avery hear the phrase “Est unus ex nobis. Nos defendat eius,” and what does she discover it means?

Paired Resource

“Pygmalion

This Seanan McGuire short-short story follows the coming-of-age experience of the daughter of two superheroes.
This resource relates to the theme of Coming of Age: Becoming a Player in Your Own Game.
What does the name “Hope Anesidora” suggest about the narrator’s identity? How much choice does she seem to have in shaping her own identity and destiny? What about her unusual coming-of-age experience applies to ordinary people’s experiences? Which elements of Hope’s story do you think Avery would relate to?

CHAPTERS 21-30

Reading Check

1. Which person in Avery’s life looks exactly like Colin Anders Wright’s uncle?

2. Which friend comes to Hawthorne House to stay with Avery?

Short Answer

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

1. What upsetting information does Skye reveal to Avery when Avery questions her about Grayson’s father?

2. What advice does Alisa give Avery about calling Max?

CHAPTERS 31-40

Reading Check

1. For what does Avery want the beer bottle from the fundraiser?

2. What is the name of the Hawthorne vacation property that catches Avery’s eye when she looks through the binder at the fundraiser?

Short Answer

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

1. How does Max’s discovery about Avery’s mother help explain some puzzling advice Landon has given Avery about speaking to the press at the fundraiser?

2. What does Avery learn about the fire on Hawthorne Island from the conversation she overhears between Grayson, Jameson, and Sheffield?

Paired Resource

“The Impacts of Social Class”

This 9-minute video explores some of the everyday ways that social class impacts our experiences. (Teacher-appropriate; not student-facing without teacher guidance due to sensitivity concerns)
This resource relates to the theme of Class Disparities and Classism.
Language and terms in the video along with statistics may be helpful in guiding discussion on Avery’s difficulty with fitting in and other conflicts connected to the impacts of social class.

CHAPTERS 41-50

Reading Check

1. What is engraved on the back of the frame that holds the photograph of Toby, Skye, and Zara?

2. What is Avery looking for when she asks Oren to open the Hawthorne House vault?

Short Answer

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

1. What message does Avery infer Grayson is trying to send her when he tells the story about the glass ballerina?

2. When Avery tells Libby that she believes Toby might be her father, what concern does this raise for both young women?

CHAPTERS 51-60

Reading Check

1. Whose ring does Avery trade to Zara in exchange for Tobias’s ring?

2. What creature does Mellie find in Avery’s bathroom?

Short Answer

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

1. Why is Avery upset by the message she gets from Toby?

2. What does Avery discover about Toby’s parentage?

Paired Resource

“Teen Talk: Relationships”

This page allows students to choose from many different topics related to understanding healthy romantic relationships. Specific topics include “Healthy Boundaries” and “Healthy Relationships.”
This resource relates to the themes of Coming of Age: Becoming a Player in Your Own Game, Romantic Relationships, and Class Disparities and Classism.
How might both healthy and unhealthy romantic relationships impact a person’s process of becoming an independent adult? Which romantic relationships in The Hawthorne Legacy would qualify as healthy ones, according to this site? Which seem less healthy? How do age and maturity, social class, gender roles, and other factors impact the characters’ romantic relationships?

CHAPTERS 61-70

Reading Check

1. In what athletic activity do Avery and Grayson engage to let off some steam after the practice interview?

2. Who is fired for leaking the pictures of Avery and Toby?

Short Answer

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

1. What concerns about Grayson and Jameson does Avery have after Grayson kisses her during the interview?

2. What did Tobias give Jake to pass on to Zara, and what is its purpose?

CHAPTERS 71-80

Reading Check

1. Besides the postcards and the letter, what other item does Jackson give Avery?

2. What explodes when Avery is about to leave Hawthorne Island?

Short Answer

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

1. What were the causes of the fire on Hawthorne Island?

2. While Avery is in a coma, how does Alisa act to preserve Avery’s inheritance?

Paired Resource

“Stress in Teenagers”

This article explores the ways in which various factors—many related to a lack of control—make adolescent life so stressful. (Content Warning: mentions suicide and gun violence)
This resource relates to the theme of Coming of Age: Becoming a Player in Your Own Game.
According to this article, what are some of the typical sources of stress in the lives of adolescents? Does this list feel accurate to you? If not, what would you add or delete? Which of these factors relate to teenagers lacking a sense of control over their lives? What additional pressures does Avery face in addition to more typical stresses people face at her age? Why might stories like this—in which a teen protagonist faces exceptional pressures—be appealing to readers?

CHAPTERS 81-90

Reading Check

1. Who is responsible for the airplane explosion?

2. Whom does Avery send away from Hawthorne House for their own safety?

Short Answer

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

1. What reason does Mellie give Avery for wanting Toby to come out of hiding?

2. How do Jameson’s remarks about mysteries and Hawthorne house relate to the silver disk that Toby took with him?

Recommended Next Reads

The Final Gambit by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The third book in Barnes’s The Inheritance Games series, The Final Gambit continues Avery’s adventures as she and the brothers are drawn into another danger-filled mystery.
Shared themes include Coming of Age: Becoming a Player in Your Own Game, Romantic Relationships, and Class Disparities and Classism.
Shared topics include puzzles, the dark side of wealth, family identity, and the complexity of family relationships.
The Final Gambit on SuperSummary

The Rosewood Hunt by Mackenzie Reed

When her beloved grandmother and guardian dies, Lily learns that most of her grandmother’s immense fortune has gone missing. She sets off on the dangerous treasure hunt her grandmother has devised, hoping to recover the money without losing her life in the process.
Shared themes include Coming of Age: Becoming a Player in Your Own Game, Romantic Relationships, and Class Disparities and Classism.
Shared topics include puzzles, the dark side of wealth, family identity, and the complexity of family relationships.

Reading Questions Answer Key

CHAPTERS 1-10

Reading Check

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4,700+ Quick-Read Plot Summaries
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1. Three (Chapter 1)

2. Xander (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

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1. Ricky is Avery’s father, but he never made a real effort to be a part of her life until she inherited money. Now, he hangs around trying to get money from Avery, and she tries to ignore him. (Chapter 3)

2. The speaker in the poem is angry at someone, a “foe,” and hides their anger, which grows into a tree laden with poison fruit. The foe unwittingly eats this fruit and dies. (Chapter 8)

CHAPTERS 11-20

Reading Check

1. Toby was adopted. (Chapter 13)

2. Tobias’s will (Chapter 16)

Short Answer

1. After discovering blacked-out letters in a lawbook passage about the poisoned tree doctrine, Avery uses the cipher disk to decode a message from these letters. The decoded message reveals that Toby has written on his walls in invisible ink. (Chapter 12)

2. As Avery, Xander, and Jameson are leaving The Hawthorne Foundation, Grayson says this to Xander and Jameson; it translates to, “It is one of us. We protect it.” (Chapter 18)

CHAPTERS 21-30

Reading Check

1. Grayson (Chapter 21)

2. Max (Chapter 30)

Short Answer

1. Skye tells Avery that she is thinking about having a child with Ricky, Avery’s father. (Chapter 23)

2. Alisa suggests that Avery probably wants someone to talk with about everything she is going through and that Max is the right person in whom to confide, not any of the Hawthornes. (Chapter 25)

CHAPTERS 31-40

Reading Check

1. A DNA test (Chapter 32)

2. True North (Chapter 36)

Short Answer

1. Max finds an article that suggests that Avery’s mother was living under an assumed identity, which is likely the reason that Landon does not want Avery talking with journalists about her mother. (Chapter 31)

2. Sheffield claims that Toby set the fire on Hawthorne Island and Tobias paid to have the truth covered up. (Chapter 35)

CHAPTERS 41-50

Reading Check

1. A compass (Chapter 43)

2. Tobias’s wedding ring (Chapter 49)

Short Answer

1. The point of the story is that Tobias wanted the Hawthorne brothers to understand that amassing power and money can come at a dangerous price for others. Avery interprets this story as a warning that Grayson is afraid she will be hurt. (Chapter 42)

2. If Toby is Avery’s father, this would mean that Avery and Libby are not half-sisters; both are concerned that this will impact their relationship. (Chapter 45)

CHAPTERS 51-60

Reading Check

1. Alice’s (Chapter 52)

2. A rattlesnake (Chapter 56)

Short Answer

1. Toby uses a friend to pass the message “STOP LOOKING” to Avery; this upsets her because she believes he is her father and that he shouldn’t be trying to stop her from finding him. (Chapters 53-54)

2. Toby is Rebecca’s mother’s first child; he was taken from her by his grandparents, the Laughlins, and given to the Hawthornes to raise. (Chapter 58)

CHAPTERS 61-70

Reading Check

1. Sword fighting (Chapter 62)

2. Eli (Chapter 66)

Short Answer

1. Avery worries that the kiss in some way betrays her relationship with Jameson; then, when Jameson doesn’t even mention it, she wonders whether he saw the interview and whether she is just some kind of prize the two brothers are competing over. (Chapter 65)

2. Tobias gave Jake a vial of powder to give to Zara; it is to be used in revealing the hidden message on the paper from the picture frame. (Chapter 67)

CHAPTERS 71-80

Reading Check

1. A metal disk (Chapter 74)

2. Avery’s airplane (Chapter 75)

Short Answer

1. Toby soaked the house with an accelerant. When lightning struck, the combination of this spark and the accelerant caused the huge blaze. (Chapter 72)

2. Alisa removes Avery from the Oregon hospital and returns her to Hawthorne House so that she is not absent for more than three days, which would cause her to lose the inheritance. (Chapter 78)

CHAPTERS 81-90

Reading Check

1. Sheffield (Chapter 81)

2. Max (Chapter 88)

Short Answer

1. Mellie and Eli have been trying to get Toby to come out of hiding because they want him to take financial responsibility for their sister, Eve, who is his daughter. (Chapter 84)

2. At the end of the novel, Jameson tells Avery that, at Hawthorne House, there will always be another mystery, another puzzle to solve. Since he says this after Avery mentions the silver disk, Jameson’s comment implies that the disk Toby took will be a part of one of these future puzzles. (Chapter 90)